MEMPHIS, TN- JASPER TEMPLE, 30, of Shelby County was sentenced today in United States District Court announced Lawrence J. Laurenzi, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. Judge J. Daniel Breen imposed a total sentence of three-hundred and twenty-seven (327) months in prison to be followed by three (3) years of supervised release.

TEMPLE pled guilty after the start of his jury trial in August, 2007. The evidence against him showed that in July of 2006, TEMPLE, a convicted felon, possessed and used a .38 caliber revolver to rob Hispanics in the Cottonwood Apartments. After attempting to rob one of the residents, a security guard, Othniel Penn, caught TEMPLE as TEMPLE fled from the scene. The guard and the apartment complex residents held him until the police arrived. The police recovered the .38 caliber revolver from bushes where TEMPLE discarded the weapon.

This case was investigated and prosecuted through the Project Safe Neighborhood program. Project Safe Neighborhoods consists of a number of law enforcement agencies united to combat gun crimes. The investigating agencies involved in this case were: the Memphis Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Greg Gilluly.

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