Jury deliberates 40 minutes, finds man guilty of gun charges
After deliberating 40 minutes, a federal court jury this week convicted a 29-year- old Chattanooga man of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Demetrius Joiner will remain in custody until his July 20 sentencing hearing before U. S. District Judge Curtis Collier. The jury, which heard the case over two days, returned its verdict Tuesday on the only charge that Joiner faced.
On May 29, 2015, Chattanooga police were called to the YMCA at 7430 Shallowford Road and found 49- year- old John Boe’s Ford F-150 with a smashed driver’s side window. Missing were Boe’s .45- caliber Glock and his wallet, which contained four credit cards and his ID, records show.
The next day, authorities discovered someone spent close to $ 2,000 on a TV and an Xbox One game system at the Wal-Mart at 2020 Gunbarrel Road. The person suspected of using Boe’s wallet, a tall black man with thick facial hair, was caught on security cameras leaving the store in a tan SUV, records show.
Two officers tracked the vehicle to an Applebee’s on Shallowford Road and found Demetrius Joiner, who matched the description of the person in the security footage. Because officers thought he was carrying a weapon, they patted him down and found a 10-ounce bag of marijuana in his front pocket. Officers also searched the car and noticed an electronic scale, records show.
At the Chattanooga Police Department, Joiner confessed to breaking into Boe’s vehicle, stealing his gun and wallet, using the credit cards, and passing the gun off to someone else to hold, records show.
Joiner was arrested May 30, 2015, and charged in state court with burglary, theft of property, theft of property over $ 500, possession of marijuana for resale, possession of drug paraphernalia, fraudulent use of a credit card, and possession of a firearm with violent felony conviction, records show. He next appears before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Don Poole on those charges on April 21.
Prosecutors said Joiner was indicted in federal court in July 2015 because he has six felony convictions spanning back to 2007. Those convictions include aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, court records show.
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