Anchorage Felon Sentenced to Eight Years in Federal Prison for Illegal Possession of Firearm

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced that Shane Corey Muse, 29, of Anchorage, was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to serve eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.  In August 2018, Muse pleaded guilty to a one-count indictment charging him with being felon in possession of a firearm.

According to court documents, in June 2018, Muse was on release pending felony trial for multiple state charges.  These charges included an October 2017 incident in which Muse allegedly rammed a police vehicle with a stolen Escalade and a later alleged attempt to cash a stolen $5,000 check.  In addition, in June 2018, Muse was on pretrial release for theft and weapons charges resulting from March 2018, when he allegedly drove another stolen vehicle aggressively toward police, who found a loaded stolen gun in the vehicle Muse and a passenger occupied.

Precisely because Muse was on state pretrial release, on June 9, 2018, Alaska Pretrial Enforcement Division (PED) officers arrived at Muse’s residence and found that he was not in compliance with his conditions of release.  The PED officers attempted to arrest Muse but he resisted, causing the officers to call for APD backup.  During the struggle to arrest and restrain Muse, Muse repeatedly moved his hands to his waistline and attempted to reach into his front pocket, causing the PED officers to fear that Muse might have a gun in his pocket.

When Muse was finally subdued, a PED officer removed a loaded and stolen Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun from the same pocket toward which Muse had previously been reaching.  Muse has four Second Degree robbery convictions in the state of Hawaii and was therefore prohibited from possessing a firearm.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Burgess noted that the most important sentencing factor in this case was protecting the public from potential further crimes by Muse.  Judge Burgess expressed grave concern that Muse was “going for his pocket in which he ha[d] a loaded gun,” and that he put both the officers and himself at risk.  Summing up, the district court judge noted: “It doesn’t get any more dangerous than that.”

In sentencing Muse, the court also took into account his criminal history, which entailed robberies at ages 18 and 19, and resulted in additional pending state charges.  Muse’s history, the court noted, suggests “an escalation and continuation of a path of criminality that [Muse] is up to his eyeballs in.”  

The Alaska Pretrial Enforcement Division, Anchorage Police Department (APD), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of this case.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Sayers-Fay.

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.