Convicted felon gets 84 months in prison on gun charges

ALBANY – A convicted felon with a violent criminal past was sentenced to 84 months in prison after a federal jury found him guilty of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Charles Peeler announced.

David Earl Butler, 30, of Valdosta was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Louis Sands in Albany federal court to 84 months in prison followed by three years supervised release for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Butler stood trial in Valdosta federal court in November 2019. The jury took less than an hour to return the guilty verdict. There is no parole in the federal system.

“A violent convicted felon terrorizing the Valdosta community will spend the next seven years in a federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm,” Peeler said in a news release. “We are working with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to identify similar cases that belong in a federal court, where convicted felons caught brandishing guns will face prison without parole.”

Butler was taken into custody by Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office deputies on April 3, 2018, arrested on an outstanding felony warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. During a lawful search of the residence where Butler was taken into custody, deputies found a loaded .40 caliber Desert Eagle handgun and a box of .40 caliber ammunition. Butler was previously convicted of aggravated assault and terroristic threats in the Superior Court of Lowndes County. He is currently on felony probation in Lowndes County. It is illegal for convicted felons to possess firearms.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Georgia Department of Community Supervision and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia Bowen and Michael Solis prosecuted the case for government.

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