Coffee County Man Sentenced to Serve 24 Years for Possession of a Firearm by a Felon

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – On Sept. 15, 2014, Victor Stitt, 32, of Manchester, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 290 months in prison by the Honorable Harry S. Mattice Jr., U.S. District Judge. The sentence was the result of a conviction after a jury trial in April 2014.

During trial, the jury learned that Coffee County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a domestic violence assault call at the residence of Stitt’s then girlfriend, after receiving information that he had assaulted her and threatened her with a handgun. He had left the scene before the deputies arrived, but was subsequently located at his family’s house in Cannon County, Tenn. At that time, Stitt was within arm’s reach of a handgun.

Stitt’s lengthy sentence was a result of his classification as an armed career criminal, which was based his nine prior convictions for aggravated burglary. As a result, he faced a mandatory sentence of at least 15 years in prison.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Stitt was the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Coffee County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Terra L. Bay and Meredith J. Edwards represented the United States at trial.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a comprehensive national strategy that creates local partnerships with law enforcement agencies to effectively enforce existing gun laws. It provides more options to prosecutors, allowing them to utilize local, state, and federal laws to ensure that criminals who commit gun crime face tough sentences. PSN gives each federal district the flexibility it needs to focus on individual challenges that a specific community faces.