William Graham Stokes, Possession of Firearm and Ammunition, South Carolina 2023

Florence, SC - In a shocking turn of events, William Graham Stokes, a 40-year-old man from Hartsville, was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition.

According to the evidence presented in court, Stokes was stopped by a Hartsville Police Department officer on the evening of January 20, 2023, for a traffic stop. During the stop, officers found a backpack containing a loaded 9mm handgun in the vehicle. Stokes later admitted that the gun was his.

The problem for Stokes was that, at the time of the traffic stop, he was on supervised release from a prior federal felony conviction. That prior conviction prohibited him from legally possessing either the firearm or the ammunition with which it was loaded.

Chief United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell sentenced Stokes to 71 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. Additionally, Chief Judge Harwell revoked Stokes's prior term of supervised release and sentenced him to 24 months imprisonment, with a three-year term of supervision to follow, that sentence to run concurrent with the sentence on the 2023 conduct.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice's violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.

The case was investigated by Hartsville Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Flynn is prosecuting the case.

Stokes's sentence of 71 months imprisonment, which will be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision, brings an end to a saga that began on January 20, 2023. The case serves as a reminder of the importance of adhering to the terms of supervised release and the consequences of violating those terms.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sc/pr/hartsville-man-sentenced-more-five-years-federal-prison-illegal-possession-firearm-and