Las Vegas, Nev. - A man with two prior felony convictions who was found guilty in August of unlawfully possessing five rounds of ammunition has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

JONATHAN ASHER LLANA, age 25, of Las Vegas, was sentenced to 120 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson on Wednesday, December 14, 2005. He was convicted by a Las Vegas jury on August 17, 2005, following a two-day trial.

In May 2004, a North Las Vegas Police Department Officer observed LLANA fire a handgun from a vehicle toward an occupied residence at 3638 Blue Dawn Avenue, in North Las Vegas. The incident was witnessed by a citizen ride-along passenger who was traveling with the officer. LLANA fired the handgun at the residence during the course of an altercation with another individual. Before LLANA was transported from the scene, he threatened to kill the officer and citizen ride-along if he testified against him.

The firearm was determined to be an antiquity and did not qualify as a "firearm" under federal law. However, the firearm contained four live rounds and one spent round of ammunition, which the defendant, as a twice-convicted felon was prohibited from possessing.

LLANA has prior felony convictions in Clark County for Battery with Substantial Bodily Harm and Battery by a Prisoner.

This case was investigated by Officers with the North Las Vegas Police Department and Special Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Reed. It was initiated through the Southern Nevada Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, a law enforcement task force which screens all arrests involving firearms in Clark County to determine whether they should be prosecuted in federal or state court. From 2002 to October 2005, this task force reviewed for prosecution approximately 2,100 gun cases. From 2002 to October 2005, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas prosecuted 630 individuals with federal gun crimes. Approximately 40 percent of these individuals received sentences of imprisonment of at least five years, and approximately 75 percent received sentences of imprisonment of at least three years. There is no parole in the federal system. Persons sentenced to prison serve almost their entire sentence, but for any "good-time" credits they may earn from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

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