Willie Collins, Gun Possession, Tennessee 2019

Gun Possession Sends Clarksville Man to Prison for 15 Years

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – June 5, 2019 – A 38-year-old man from Clarksville, Tennessee, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Willie Collins, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to 15 years in federal prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Collins was indicted in March 2017 and pleaded guilty in December 2017.

According to charging documents and court records, Collins was arrested by Clarksville police officers on May 24, 2016, after responding to a call about shots being fired on Chapel St., in Clarksville.

When responding officers arrived and encountered Collins, he walked away from them and placed what was later found to be a Beretta 9mm handgun on the top of the tire of a vehicle parked nearby. Officers also found several spent shell casings in close proximity and a car that had sustained damage from gunfire.

Video surveillance later obtained also showed Collins firing a handgun toward an individual with whom he had been in an argument.

Collins had previously been convicted of several felonies, including possession with intent to sell cocaine, robbery, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, and other crimes.

In sentencing Collins, Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr., found that Collins' criminal history qualified him as an Armed Career Criminal and subject to sentence enhancement.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and the Clarksville Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Montminy.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/clarksville-man-sentenced-15-years-federal-prison