Press Releases
ARMED CAREER CRIMINAL SENTENCED TO
TWENTY FOUR AND A HALF YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
May 10, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dunn Lampton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Dave Harper, Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, and Chief Shirlene Anderson of the Jackson Police Department, announced today that CHARLES EDWARD SPARKMAN, age 42, of Jackson, Mississippi, was sentenced to twenty-four and a half years in federal prison by United States District Judge William H. Barbour in federal court in Jackson, Mississippi.
A jury in the Southern District of Mississippi found SPARKMAN guilty of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. SPARKMAN was adjudicated to be an armed career criminal under federal law, which mandates a minimum sentence of fifteen years to life in federal prison. He was sentenced to twenty-four and a half years in accordance with the federal sentencing guidelines.
SPARKMAN had been released from prison only four months prior to the July 2006 offense for which he was convicted in federal court. The evidence at trial showed that SPARKMAN put a gun to the head of a woman at her workplace in Jackson. Jackson Police Officers responded to a call for help and were able to arrest SPARKMAN in a vehicle nearby shortly after the incident.
SPARKMAN had previously been convicted of nine violent felonies, including five burglary convictions, three armed robbery convictions and one felony conviction for assault on a law enforcement officer. SPARKMAN’s felony criminal history dates back to 1983, and he had previously been sentenced in 1997 as an habitual offender under state law.
“This is an example of the renewed cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to target the ‘worst of the worst.’ All of us are strongly committed to taking armed career criminals off of the streets and locking them away for as long a possible. Our office will put every resource at our disposal into the effort to arrest, prosecute and convict violent felons with guns.” said U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton.
ATF Special Agent in Charge Dave Harper commended the investigators and prosecutors who brought this case to a successful conclusion, saying that "the removal of Charles Sparkman from the streets of Jackson will substantially enhance the public safety.” He further stated that, "ATF and its law enforcement partners will continue to target the most violent repeat offenders for federal firearms prosecution.”
The investigating agencies were the Jackson Police Department and ATF. The primary investigator was Sergeant Anthony Moore, a Jackson Police Officer who is assigned full-time to the ATF Ceasefire Task Force in Jackson. The case was tried by Assistant United States Attorneys Erin O’Leary and Jerry Abdalla.
