A man found with a machine gun in his car at Cleveland, Tn., last Feb. 3 has been sentenced to serve 30 months in federal prison.
David King appeared before Federal Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr.
He will be on supervised release for three years after getting out of prison.
Prosecutors said a police officer stopped the defendant’s black Taurus for not having a license plate on display. A silver Mustang that had been in front of the Taurus also pulled over and stopped.
The officer asked King if he knew the people in the Mustang. He said he did not, but they had been hanging around his car at the hotel he where he was staying and he thought they put something in his gas tank, so he was following them.
The officer observed binoculars and various tools in the front seat of the Taurus. The officer asked if there were any dangerous things in the car. The defendant said he had a gun on the back seat.
Other officers arrived and the three Mustang occupants were spoken to. They said the defendant had been following them, but they did not know why.
Officers ran a check that revealed the defendant was at that time out on bond on a murder charge and was on an electronic monitor. The defendant was then told to step out of the vehicle and was detained.
An officer retrieved the firearm from the backseat floorboard. The firearm was loaded. A separate magazine was found under the driver’s seat.
King said the machine gun had been handed down in his family and that he had gotten it from his brother about a month prior.
After speaking with the on-call Assistant District Attorney General, the officers kept the firearm for further investigation and released the defendant.
An ATF Special Agent took possession of the firearm. He fired it and found that it expelled multiple rounds of ammunition with one pull of the trigger. He then sent the firearm to an ATF lab which determined that it was “a STEN-type, Model MKII, 9mm Parabellum caliber machinegun, serial number L2240, with two accompanying magazines.”
King said he had previously fired the machine gun. He was then taken into custody.