Felon gets 13 years in federal prison for having assault rifle

Amid the recent national news and debate over assault rifles and who has access to them, a convicted felon from Carlsbad was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in federal prison for illegally possessing firearms and ammunition.

Mia Coy Campbell, 34, was sentenced in federal court in Las Cruces, in two separate cases. He pleaded guilty to illegally possessing an assault rifle, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque said in a news release.

He will be on supervised release for three years upon completion of his prison sentence.

Campbell was prosecuted under a federal antiviolence initiative that targets the “worst of the worst” offenders for federal prosecution, according to the news release.

Under the initiative, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal law enforcement agencies work with district attorneys and local law enforcement to target violent or repeat offenders based on prior criminal convictions for federal prosecution.

The sentencing stems from cases in 2015 in southern New Mexico. In 2016, Campbell pleaded guilty in one case and was found guilty by a federal jury in the other.

In one case, Campbell was arrested on a criminal complaint in September 2015, after law enforcement officers found an assault rifle, which Campbell was accused of using to shoot at an occupied residence in Carlsbad.