West Memphis man receives 16-plus years federal sentence for firearm possession

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A West Memphis man with a felony record will be spending more than 16 years in federal prison after a judge’s gavel fell Thursday.

The sentence against 46-year-old Cornelius Corwin Sandlin was the result of his pleading guilty in February to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Judge James M. Moody Jr. assigned him a 195-month sentence plus three years of supervised release in the Eastern District of Arkansas Court.

There is no parole in the federal system.

Officials said the plea and sentencing came after an investigation by West Memphis police. Officials said detectives from the department’s violent crime unit received a tip from a confidential informant in January 2022 that Sandlin was trying to sell an AR-style rifle from his motel room for $300.

Investigators said they surveyed the motel room until they saw Sandlin leaving it while clutching something under his jacket that officers took to be a gun. As he started to drive away, officers stopped his car, but Sandlin ran and was able to get away.

A search of the car found a loaded rifle on the front seat, officials said, along with a casino player’s card and a pill bottle with Sandlin’s name on them.

Investigators later found Sandlin, and he was arrested in February, roughly a month after the traffic stop. Officers said he had methamphetamine, cocaine, plastic baggies, a scale, ammunition and a CB radio when he was found.

Sandlin was classified as an armed career criminal based on previous charges of robbery, theft, aggravated robbery, and possession with intent to deliver marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine. Based on the classification and the firearm possession charge, he was facing a term of 15 years to life in prison.

Officials said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the case with assistance from the West Memphis Police Department and Assistant United States Attorney Reese Lancaster prosecuted it.

from KARK https://ift.tt/q0hp6Qm