Man sentenced to 10 years for firearms offense

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a 29-year-old Fairfield man, a previously convicted felon, to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for possession of a stolen firearm.

David Anthony McDaniels heard U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez in Sacramento hand down the sentence, Phillip A. Talbert, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Easter District of California, said in a press release.

McDaniels has a lengthy criminal history, which includes five felony convictions, among them assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, and inflicting injury on a spouse, Talbert noted in the press statement.

Court records show that on May 22, 2018, Vacaville police officers arrived at a motel room in Vacaville to search the room after the probation search for one of the room’s occupants.

After identifying themselves as law enforcement and demanding entry into the room, the officers heard items inside the room rustling as well as the sound of a toilet bowl lid being removed and manipulated. The officers requested entry into the room once more and attempted to use a key to open the room, “but the door was deadbolted from the inside,” added Talbert.

Eventually, a shirtless male, later identified as McDaniels, opened the door.

When one of the officers grabbed his hands to detain him, the officer noticed that McDaniels’ hands were wet. He told officers he had just emerged from the shower.

Police dispatchers confirmed there was an active warrant for his arrest and that he was on state parole after a burglary conviction. As a previously convicted felon, McDaniels was not permitted to have a gun.

While this was happening, officers searched the air-conditioning vent in the room. Inside the vent, officers found a stolen and loaded Ruger 9 mm pistol. The gun was wet, and there was a trail of water leading from the bathroom to a chair directly underneath the vent. A records check of the firearm’s serial number revealed that it was unregistered in California.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the Vacaville Police Department, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Audrey Hemesath and Sam Stefanki prosecuted the case, part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, the centerpiece of the U.S. Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally-based prevention and re-entry programs for lasting reductions in crime, said Talbert.