AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Several CSRA residents have been prosecuted recently in federal court over felony firearms and drug-distribution charges.

The cases are prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods in collaboration with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Just Tuesday, the program got $98,657 to help coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement efforts to cut violent crime in the region.

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In the past five years, more than 800 defendants have been prosecuted in the Southern District of Georgia for firearms offenses – most often for possessing a firearm after conviction for a previous felony.

Among those indicted during the October term of the U.S. District Court Grand Jury is Jamal Brashad Hawkins, 20, of Swainsboro, who’s charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Other CSRA residents are further along in the process, including:

• Tony Lavardo Blount Jr., 32, of Augusta, who was sentenced to 78 months in prison and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Columbia County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a Grovetown home to investigate a report of domestic violence and arrested Blount after a brief foot chase when he pulled a pistol from his pocket.
• Calvin Lomont Powell Jr., 22, of Waynesboro, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Georgia State Patrol troopers found a pistol, drugs, and cash in Powell’s car during a June 2022 traffic stop.
• Derrick Drurell Long, 32, of Augusta, who was sentenced to 56 months in prison and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Georgia Department of Community Supervision officers arrested Long in June 2020 after finding a pistol in his apartment during a search.
• Reco “Rico: Casey, 33, of Augusta, who was sentenced to 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In September 2021, Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies found a pistol in the vehicle where Casey was a passenger. Casey was on state felony probation at the time of his arrest.
• Tavares L. Freeman Jr., 22, of Augusta, who was sentenced to 45 months in prison and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Freeman was arrested in August 2022 after he was seen tossing a pistol from a window of his home as Richmond County sheriff’s deputies and agents from the Georgia Department of Community Supervision arrived to conduct a search of the residence. Freeman was on probation from a state felony conviction at the time.
• Cortez Timmie Dinh, 27, of Martinez, who was sentenced to three years of probation, fined $1,500 and ordered to serve 40 hours of community service after pleading guilty to false statement during the purchase of a firearm. During an August 2019 traffic stop, Richmond County deputies found guns and drugs in a vehicle in which Dinh was a passenger. The driver, Jose Ramon Valero Jr., 25, of Stonecrest, is serving 84 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with Intent to distribute, and to distribute, marijuana, and possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. Dinh acted as a straw purchaser in buying one of the guns found in the vehicle for Valero, who was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a previous conviction for domestic violence.
• Steve Shontell Heath, 46, of Hephzibah, who awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. A Burke County sheriff’s deputy found a pistol in Heath’s vehicle during a December 2021 traffic stop.

Under federal law, it is illegal for an individual to possess a firearm if he or she falls into one of nine prohibited categories including being a felon.

“Removing illegally possessed firearms from convicted felons plays a key role in reducing violent crime in our communities,” said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. “In collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to prioritize taking these tools of violence out of the hands individuals who are prohibited from possessing them.”

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