FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 25, 2008
JESSE LEE HOPKINS SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Missoula, on January 25, 2008, before Chief U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, JESSE LEE HOPKINS, a 22-year-old resident of the Bozeman/Belgrade area, appeared for sentencing. HOPKINS was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 37 months, concurrent with a state sentence
- Special Assessment: $200
- Supervised Release: 3 years
HOPKINS was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to being a felon-in-possession of a firearm and theft from a federal firearms licensee.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On January 16, 2007, HOPKINS was convicted of felony theft in Montana's Eighteenth Judicial District Court in Gallatin County.
On March 1, 2007, HOPKINS walked into Yellowstone Gateway Sports, a federal firearms licensee. HOPKINS then walked out of the store with a Bellini 12 gauge shotgun without paying for it. The shotgun was recovered later the same day when HOPKINS attempted to rob a nearby casino.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that HOPKINS will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, HOPKINS does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paulette L. Stewart prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office, Montana Probation and Parole, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
This conviction is yet another important outcome from Project Safe Neighborhoods, a national priority of the United States Department of Justice. PSN is designed as a partnership between federal and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime and gun-related crime through the vigorous enforcement of the criminal provisions of the federal firearms laws. In Montana, the effort under PSN is called "Catch and No Release."
