Orange County Armed Career Criminal Sentenced to Fifteen Years in Federal Prison
Orlando, Florida – U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Chief U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway today sentenced Leonard Johnson (38, Orlando) to 15 years in federal prison for possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. Johnson previously pled guilty on August 4, 2011.
According to court documents, on February 15, 2011, Orlando Police Department officers arrested Johnson at the Vacation Lodge (720 South Orange Blossom Trail), in Orlando. The officers had been summoned to assist management in evicting non-residents from the motel. Officers located Johnson in one of the rooms laying face down on a bed next to illegal narcotics. When Johnson sat up, the officers discovered a handgun in the sheets where Johnson's right hand had been positioned. Johnson eventually admitted that the loaded handgun belonged to him.
Johnson had at least 19 prior felony convictions in the State of Florida, including multiple convictions for resisting arrest with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer and delivery of narcotics. These prior convictions qualified Johnson as an Armed Career Criminal under federal sentencing law. As a previously convicted felon, Johnson is prohibited from possessing either firearms or ammunition under federal law.
This is another case prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods
program ’a nationwide, gun-violence reduction strategy led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill, along with Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge, ATF Tampa Field Division, is coordinating the Project Safe Neighborhoods effort here in the Middle District of Florida in cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
This case was investigated by the Orlando Police Department and ATF. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Bodnar, Jr.
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