Rock Island Man Sentenced to 84 Months in Prison for Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition

ROCK ISLAND, IL – Anthony Tony Gay, 49, of the 1200 block of 14^th Street, Rock Island, was sentenced on May 24, 2023, to 84 months in the Bureau of Prisons, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release, for Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Felon in Possession of Ammunition.

Gay was found guilty of the charges following a three-day jury trial in May 2022. At the trial, the government presented evidence that on May 31, 2020, a vehicle in which Gay was a passenger, was stopped by Rock Island police officers for a traffic violation. Gay fled from the traffic stop but fell as he was being chased by police. He was arrested a short distance away. When officers retraced Gay’s flight path, they found a loaded Glock model 36 .45 pistol in the location where he fell.

Approximately two weeks later, on June 14, 2020, Rock Island police were called to a Rock Island motel where Gay had been renting a room prior to his arrest. As motel personnel were cleaning Gay’s room and removing his belongings, one of them located a bag of .45 ammunition containing the same type of rounds that had been loaded in the Glock pistol. 

During the trial, the government also established that Gay had an extensive number of prior felony convictions, including robbery, aggravated battery, and possession of a weapon in prison.  

At the sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge James Shadid, the government presented evidence that Gay’s prior robbery conviction involved him and several other gang members beating a 15-year-old boy who had been riding his bicycle, and that Gay had committed that crime only one day after being released from prison. The government further presented evidence of Gay’s extensive history of misconduct while in prison, which included several aggravated batteries of correctional officers.

In pronouncing sentence, Judge Shadid remarked that the nature and circumstances of the offense were serious, in that Gay, a felon on parole at the time of the offense, possessed a loaded firearm and fled from police. That, combined with Gay’s lengthy criminal record and violent history, including the act of violence against a 15-year-old, indicated to the judge that Gay was dangerous and that the 84-month prison sentence was necessary to protect the public.

The statutory penalties for the charges are up to ten years of imprisonment for each Count, a $250,000 fine, and up to a three-year term of supervised release.

The investigation was conducted by the Rock Island Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Mehochko and Jennifer Mathew and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Alyssa Raya represented the United States in the prosecution. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  PSN is 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. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.