20-Year Old to Federal Prison for Firearm Conviction

A man who illegally possessed a firearm was sentenced October 12, 2012, to ten years in federal prison.

Nickolas Beck, 20, from Bremerton, Washington, received the prison term after a June 21, 2012, guilty plea to illegal possession of a firearm.

At the guilty plea, Beck admitted that on April 3, 2012, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he possessed a .22 caliber revolver. Beck also acknowledged at sentencing that in April 2012 he shot and seriously wounded another person during a marijuana trafficking offense. Beck further admitted to previously being convicted of willful injury causing bodily injury on August 9, 2010, in the Iowa District Court for Webster County.

Beck was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett. Beck was sentenced to 120 months' imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Beck is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn S. Wehde and was investigated by the Fort Dodge Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the ATF.