St. Paul Felon Sentenced to 9.5 Years in Prison for Illegal Possession of Firearms

MINNEAPOLIS – A Minneapolis man has been sentenced to 115 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for illegally possessing multiple firearms while on federal supervised release, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger. 

According to court documents, on September 27, 2022, a 911 caller reported seeing two males in a Ford Fusion on I-94 brandishing and pointing firearms. The caller also reported hearing a gunshot. Two Minnesota State Patrol squads located the Ford Fusion and conducted a traffic stop. The driver and the passenger, later identified as Antonio Maurice Hughes, 29, fled on foot into a nearby wooded area. After the St. Paul Police responded with a K9 unit, Hughes exited the wooded area and was taken into custody. When the K9 retraced Hughes’s flight path, officers found the defendant’s driver’s license, other personal papers and effects, and two loaded semiautomatic pistols. On November 15, 2022, federal agents executed a search warrant at Hughes’s apartment and recovered two additional firearms, both with attached high-capacity magazines.  One of those firearms was determined to have been stolen.

This conduct occurred while Hughes was on supervised release following two 2016 federal convictions for firearms violations. Because of Hughes’s prior felony convictions, he is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition at any time.

On January 24, 2023, Hughes pleaded guilty to one count of possession of firearms as a felon and admitted to possessing the other two firearms. He was sentenced earlier today by Senior Judge David S. Doty.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Minnesota State Patrol, and the St. Paul Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar prosecuted the case.