TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Tallahassee man was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison after authorities said detectives found an AR-style pistol with a 60-round magazine on the floor of his vehicle during a traffic-related encounter at a gas station.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Jovan Randolph, 37, of Tallahassee, was sentenced for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Florida. The sentence was announced Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, by John P. Heekin, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur state and federal law enforcement partners work hard every day to keep dangerous criminals, like this defendant, off our streets to ensure our citizens can live in the safe, crime-free communities they deserve,\u201d Heekin said. \u201cBy aggressively prosecuting cases like this, and ensuring dangerous criminals like this defendant are kept behind bars, we will succeed in improving public safety for the law-abiding citizens of the Northern District of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Court documents say that on Feb. 5, 2026, Tallahassee Police Department detectives assigned to the Traffic Unit noticed a vehicle parked illegally in a handicapped spot in a gas station parking lot. Detectives said they saw Randolph exit the store and get into the vehicle, then approached and smelled marijuana coming from inside. Authorities said detectives confirmed Randolph did not have a medical marijuana card and asked him to get out of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
As Randolph exited, detectives said they saw an AR-style pistol on the driver\u2019s side floor where he had been sitting. The pistol was equipped with a 60-round magazine, according to court documents. Randolph is a previously convicted felon and was legally prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The case involved a joint investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Tallahassee Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Eric W. Welch is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n
The U.S. attorney\u2019s office said the case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a Department of Justice initiative that coordinates federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement efforts to combat violent crime and address public safety challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Tallahassee man was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-415019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}