Columbus man texted threats with gun from another country before arrest

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Columbus man was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison for illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon. 

Lamonte K. Brown, 47, was charged via federal criminal complaint in August 2022 and pleaded guilty in September. He received the 93-month sentence Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Ohio Adult Parole Authority officers conducted a planned arrest of Brown in February, 2022. Parole officers had been investigating Brown after receiving information that he had been sending threatening messages to another individual, including indications that he had a firearm.

Following his arrest, the case was transferred to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to ATF Agent Samuel Chappell.

Brown violated federal law prohibiting felons from shipping, receiving, transporting or possessing firearms across state lines, with a maximum sentence of 10 years for those who knowingly do so. An expert trained in firearm analysis also determined the gun was imported from Croatia into the U.S. through Illinois to get to Brown, according to court records.

Brown has more than 20 prior adult convictions, including a prior federal conviction for firearm possession as a convicted felon. In this case, Brown possessed a firearm illegally again, keeping it under his kitchen sink along with more than nine grams of methamphetamine, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker. 

Brown texted someone a photo of the gun along with several threatening messages, including, “When I get off parole imm a light yo blok up,” according to court documents. They included photos of the gun recovered, as well as a screenshot of the image Brown sent to his target. 

At the time of his arrest, Brown was on parole for a prior attempted rape conviction, one of six prior felony convictions from the Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Despite initially telling agents they would have to “kill him” to get his DNA, Brown consented to a DNA swab in May 2022, which was consistent with a major contributor to the genetic material present in a swab of a gun. The criminal complaint for Brown’s case said the odds of this DNA profile being unrelated is rarer than one in 1 trillion unrelated people.

During court proceedings, Brown tried to withdraw his plea, but the court denied his request after multiple hearings.