East St. Louis Man Receives 46-Month Sentence for the Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Previously Convicted Felon

An East St. Louis man was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on April 4, 2011, for the unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Willie McLemore, 24, East St. Louis, Illinois, received a 46-month sentence to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. An order was also entered to forfeit the gun McLemore illegally possessed. McLemore has been in federal custody since he was transferred from state custody on November 30, 2010.

The violation occurred on September 27, 2010, when an agent working a W.A.V.E. detail conducted a traffic stop on a car parked in the roadway facing westbound in an eastbound lane. The defendant was standing outside of the car on the driver’s side, where a gun was subsequently discovered by an officer working the traffic stop. The gun was partially underneath the driver’s side of the car where the defendant had been standing. In a voluntary statement, the defendant admitted dropping his gun on the ground when he saw the police coming, and that the gun was loaded when he bought it from an unknown person in Washington Park, Illinois. Finally, the defendant admitted knowing that he was not supposed to have a gun.

The case resulted from the efforts of the WAVE (Working Against Violent Elements) Task Force, which focuses its efforts on combating violent crime in East St. Louis, Washington Park, and surrounding communities. WAVE was formed in November 2009, and is a collaboration of law enforcement officers from the Illinois State Police, the Metropolitan Enforcement Group of Southwestern Illinois (MEGSI), the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, the East St. Louis Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the United States Marshals Service. The WAVE Task Force receives financial support through the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, a nationwide federal program which endeavors to address gun-related violence. The case was assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.