ODESSA
MAN SENTENCED FOR FEDERAL FIREARMS VIOLATION
United
States Attorney Johnny Sutton announced that 27-year-old Christopher
Joseph Kenimer of Odessa, Texas, was sentenced to 57 months in federal
prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
On January 18, 2007, Kenimer pleaded guilty to the charge. By pleading
guilty, Kenimer admitted he stole several rifles from an Odessa residence,
and subsequently pawned them in Odessa in October and November 2006. He
further admitted that he had been convicted in Ector County in 2001 of
Burglary of a Habitation and had served a term of incarceration in the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice--Institutional Division for this
offense.
In addition to the federal prison term, United States District Judge Robert
Junell ordered that Kenimer be placed under supervised release for a period
of three years after completing his prison term.
This offense was discovered by the Odessa Police Department as part of
its routine review of pawnshop records and comparison of pawnshop customer
lists with criminal histories. The case was further investigated by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's West Texas Major Offenders Task Force
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant
United States Attorney John Klassen prosecuted this case on behalf of
the Government.
The prosecution of this case is another example of how the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Western District of Texas is carrying out the Department
of Justice’s gun crime initiative - Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide federal initiative designed
to reduce gun violence in our communities. PSN promotes partnerships among
federal, state, and local law enforcement to target criminals in possession
of guns. Federal law insures that when an armed criminal is arrested,
that individual will face swift criminal prosecution and be exiled from
the community through the use of stiff mandatary prison sentences.
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