Durham man sentenced for possession of a firearm

WINSTON-SALEM – A North Carolina man was sentenced today to 224 total months of imprisonment, after pleading guilty to one count of felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney Sandra J. Hairston of the Middle District of North Carolina (MDNC).

ARMAND SAQUAN SUFYAN LEWIS-LANGSTON, age 26, of Durham, North Carolina, was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas D. Schroeder, United States District Judge in the United States District Court for the MDNC to a 200-month term of imprisonment after pleading guilty on December 11, 2023, to felon in possession of a firearm, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(e). He was sentenced to an additional twenty-four-month term of imprisonment to run consecutively to the 200-month term for violating the terms of his federal supervised release.

According to court records, LEWIS-LANGSTON, then on federal supervised release after serving a 26-month term of imprisonment for felon in possession of a firearm, was found asleep in a car by a Durham Police Department (DPD) officer on October 22, 2020, with a Cugir 7.62x39 Draco assault-style pistol. He was arrested and charged by the state and bonded out of custody.

On November 17, 2020, officers with the DPD Select Enforcement Team arrested LEWIS-LANGSTON at a residence on Scheer Avenue in possession of a Kel-Tec Sub2000 9mm foldable rifle. This firearm was forensically linked to the shooting of an off-duty Durham County Sheriff’s Office deputy that occurred on November 14, 2020. Specifically, a forensic firearms examiner with DPD microscopically compared 9mm cartridge casings recovered from the November 14, 2020, shooting of the deputy with a cartridge casing test fired from the Kel-Tec Sub2000 9mm foldable rifle and determined that, based on similar class characteristics and sufficient agreement of individual characteristics, the 9mm cartridge casings recovered from the scene on November 14, 2020, were fired from the Kel-Tec Sub2000 9mm foldable rifle.

At the time of these offenses, LEWIS-LANGSTON had been previously convicted of multiple felonies. In connection with these offenses, LEWIS-LANGSTON was sentenced to multiple terms of imprisonment exceeding one year. Thus, at the time of the offenses, LEWIS-LANGSTON was legally barred from possessing a firearm due to his status as a felon.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Raleigh-Durham Safe Streets Task Force (SSTF), the Durham Police Department, and the Durham County Sheriff’s Office. The lead investigator was an FBI Task Force Officer from the Durham County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney JoAnna G. McFadden.

Since 1992, the FBI’s Safe Streets Violent Crime Initiative has successfully aligned FBI Agents, state and local law enforcement investigators, and federal and state prosecutors onto SSTFs to reduce violent crime. This nationwide initiative brings resources together in a “force multiplier concept” and utilizes the expertise of each agency. SSTFs focus primarily upon street gang and drug-related violence through sustained, proactive, coordinated investigations to obtain prosecutions on violations such as racketeering, drug conspiracy, and firearms violations.

A copy of this press release will be posted on our website. Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case Nos. 1:23-cr-321-1 and 1:16-cr-10-1.