Gallatin, Tennessee Man Pleads Guilty to Violent Crime Spree

Defendant Agrees to 22-year Prison Sentence

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – January 30, 2019 – Harold Powell, aka “Goddi,” 31, of Gallatin, Tennessee, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to federal firearms and robbery charges relating to a violent crime spree in 2017, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.  The plea agreement calls for a 22-year prison sentence, if approved by the court.

Powell was indicted in March 2018 and charged with two counts of Hobbs Act Robbery; one count of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence; discharging a firearm during a crime of violence; and three counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.  These charges followed a violent crime spree in Gallatin and Nashville, Tennessee, which began in January 2017 and continued through the middle of June 2017.

According to records filed with the court, on January 30, 2017, Powell accompanied another individual to a park in Gallatin for the purpose of buying marijuana.  The meeting with the marijuana dealer had been pre-arranged and when they arrived, Powell and the other individual went to the dealer’s car.  Powell then pointed a gun at the dealer’s head and demanded the marijuana, money, his phone and necklace.  As he walked away, Powell turned and pointed the gun at the dealer again and said, “I should kill you.”

On February 13, 2017, after communicating with another individual about obtaining cocaine, Powell kicked in the door of an apartment in Gallatin, which was occupied by the cocaine dealer and two other persons, one of which was the same individual he robbed on January 30, 2017.  Powell shouted his intentions to rob them and began firing a pistol, striking the cocaine dealer in the arm and leg.  Powell backed out of the apartment and continued firing the weapon.

On June 6, 2017, Powell entered the Bargain Lot, a used car lot in Nashville.  Several individuals were sitting on a small porch in front of the office and Powell called to them for help.  When no one left the porch to assist him, Powell walked up to the porch and began firing a pistol.  One of the individuals fell backward off the porch and broke his leg but continued to crawl under the porch to avoid being shot, but Powell continued firing and struck the individual in the shoulders and leg.  Powell continued to shoot at him until he ran out of bullets and then calmly walked away.

Powell was subsequently arrested at a Nashville hotel on June 15, 2017, by Metro Nashville Police Detectives, who also recovered several firearms and rounds of ammunition and digital scales.

Powell is scheduled to be sentenced on April 19, 2019.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department; the Gallatin Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katy Risinger, Amanda Klopf and Ben Schrader are prosecuting the case.