U.S. Department
of Justice
Springfield, Illinois man Sentenced to 84 Months in Prison for Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A Springfield, Illinois man, Isaah Washington, 33, of the 900 block of South 17th Street in Springfield, Illinois, has been sentenced to 63 months for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Washington received an additional 21-month sentence, to be served consecutively, for violating the terms of his supervised release. He was on supervised release for a prior federal firearms offense.
At the sentencing hearing, the evidence showed Washington attempted to flee on foot from a Springfield Police Officer during a traffic stop while carrying a stolen firearm loaded with an extended magazine containing 19 rounds of ammunition. At the time of the traffic stop, Washington was on supervised release after serving a prior federal prison sentence for possessing a firearm by a prohibited person.
Washington was indicted in February of 2021 and pleaded guilty in October of 2021.
The statutory penalties for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person are not more than 10 years of imprisonment, not more than a $250,000 fine, not more than 3 years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment.
The Department of Justice’s recent renewed commitment to Project Safe Neighborhoods establishes four fundamental principles to guide efforts to reduce violent crime: (1) build trust and legitimacy within communities; (2) invest in community-based prevention and intervention programs; (3) target enforcement and priorities to focus resources on identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the most significant drivers of gun violence and other violent crime; and (4) measure results with the goal of reducing the level of violence in our communities, not increasing the number of arrests and prosecutions as if they were ends in and of themselves.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Springfield Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Z. Weir represented the government in the prosecution.