Congratulations to a Knox Defense Attorney for his significant sentencing victory yesterday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A Knox Defense Attorney had a client who had been convicted of possession of two firearms while being a convicted felon. The issue at sentencing was whether his sentence should be enhanced because the firearms, which were found in the defendant’s home, were not the only illegal substances found there. Also found were meth making materials and marijuana. United States Probation and the United States Attorney recommended a four level sentencing enhancement for possessing the firearms in connection with drug trafficking or manufacturing.
A Knox Defense Attorney successfully argued to district judge Harry Mattice that the drugs were only coincidental to the possession of the firearms. Because the court agreed, the defendant was only sentenced to 18 months in prison instead of the 24-30 months that he would have received in the event that the sentencing argument failed.