FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2010
RALEIGH FELON SENTENCED FOR ILLEGALLY POSSESSING A FIREARM
WILMINGTON - United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court on December 14, 2010, Senior United States District Judge James C. Fox sentenced TIMOTHY TYRONE HORTON, 28, of Raleigh, North Carolina, to a term of life imprisonment.
A Federal Grand Jury returned a Criminal Indictment on February 20, 2008. On November 19, 2009, HORTON was convicted following a three-day trial of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On August 10, 2007, Raleigh police officers responded to a 9-1-1 call at a residence where shots being fired was reported. HORTON’s girlfriend had called the police after she and HORTON had been involved in an argument because he had brought a gun into her residence. After the argument, his girlfriend had refused to allow HORTON to use her car. HORTON then walked outside the residence, removed a rifle from a bag and fired two shots in the air and one in the hood of the car. After placing the rifle back in the bag, HORTON left. When police arrived they recovered three spent .22 caliber shell casings along with the rifle. Analysis of the weapon revealed the stock and barrel had been sawed off.
HORTON’s previous felony convictions include possession with intent to manufacture, sell, deliver cocaine; elude arrest in a motor vehicle with two aggravating factors, two counts of larceny after breaking and entering; three counts of breaking or entering a motor vehicle; possession with intent to sell and delivery cocaine; sale and deliver cocaine; breaking and entering; and obtaining property by false pretense.
At the sentencing hearing, evidence was presented concerning HORTON's involvement in a home invasion that occurred on August 17, 2007, just a week after Horton fired shots into his girlfriend's car. HORTON was one of several men who entered an apartment off of Spring Forest Road in Raleigh. HORTON, armed with a sawed off shotgun, shot and killed Charmeka Harris, who was visiting the apartment. HORTON, a verified member of the Nine Tre Blood gang in Raleigh, later spoke to several people about his involvement in the home invasion.
This case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods(PSN) initiative which encourages federal, state, and local agencies to cooperate in a unified “team effort” against gun crime, targeting repeat offenders who continually plague their communities.
Investigation of this case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Raleigh Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Wells represented the government.
News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce.
