Department of Justice

DAYTON – Gabriel Newman, 36, of Dayton was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 84 months in prison for possessing an AR-15 assault-style rifle at a home where he was dealing illegal drugs.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Jonathan McPherson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl announced the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice.

Newman was also ordered to forfeit a handgun, ammunition and a high-capacity magazine for the AR-15 found during the search.

According to court documents, Newman was on federal supervised release in early 2018 for a prior federal conviction of drug trafficking when agents found the firearm as well as illegal drugs hidden inside a Christmas tree at a residence in east Dayton.

Agents arrested Newman and he pleaded guilty in February to one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and to violating his supervised release following his 2015 conviction for drug trafficking.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. 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.

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by the ATF and Dayton Police Department, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Brent Tabacchi, who is representing the United States in this case. 

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