A St. Paul repeat offender has been sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally possessing ammunition as a convicted felon, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson.
In August 2024, Jermaine Marquize Williams fired off multiple rounds from a fully automatic firearm in a densely populated St. Paul neighborhood, outside a bar on the 500 block of Blair Avenue just before midnight, according to the U.S. Attorney’s press release and court documents. At least one man was shot in the leg in the incident but refused assistance from police and was privately transported to an area hospital.
Police located a total of 19 casings from two different caliber guns in the area. Charging documents first filed in state court note that bar patrons and bar security were uncooperative with the police investigation into the shooting, but with the owner’s help officers were able to recover surveillance video from the incident.
Video surveillance depicted Williams firing the machine gun out of the driver’s side door of his vehicle before fleeing from the scene in the vehicle.
“While the people of St. Paul were sleeping in their homes, Williams took an automatic firearm and shot it into the neighborhood,” said Thompson. “This conduct was extraordinarily dangerous, utterly brazen, and well-deserving of federal time.”
Williams has a prior 2019 federal conviction for illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, for which he received a 65-month prison sentence. Williams had only been on federal supervised release for six months at the time he committed this crime.
Williams, 35, was sentenced to a total of 82 months’ imprisonment, which includes 77 months’ imprisonment on the criminal case and an additional 6 months of consecutive imprisonment for violating the terms of his federal supervised release.
Federal inmates must serve at least 85% of their sentence before being considered for release, unlike state sentencing which only requires one-third or less be served.
The case was the result of an investigation conducted by Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and the St. Paul Police Department.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
