Anchorage Man Pleads Guilty To Firearms Offense

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that Adam Michael Cornelison, 26, resident of Anchorage, Alaska, pleaded guilty on Thursday, October 29, 2015, to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). 

According to the plea agreement filed in the case, on the evening of November 8, 2014, Cornelison went to Fashion Nails nail salon on Muldoon Road in Anchorage, Alaska, to meet with co-defendant Toa Danh “Tony” Ly.  Also present at the meeting were co-defendants Robert Rast and Rennie Marie Davis.  The defendant was inside the studio with Ly, Rast, and Davis for approximately 45 minutes.

After the meeting, the police followed Cornelison’s vehicle as he drove away from the nail salon. When police attempted to stop Cornelison, he fled, leading police for several miles through Anchorage.  At the end of the pursuit, Cornelison attempted to evade police by driving in the wrong direction and up onto the sidewalk.  He was ultimately forced to a stop after an Anchorage police officer drove her car into the front of Cornelison’s vehicle, pinning his car between the police cruiser and a retaining wall. 

Located in the rear passenger seat of Cornelison’s car was approximately one pound of marijuana.  Also located in the vehicle under the front passenger seat was a Glock .40 caliber handgun that had been previously stolen.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Anchorage Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Reardon is prosecuting the case.  The Anchorage FBI Safe Streets Task Force (SSTF) is currently tasked with identifying and targeting for prosecution the most egregious violent offenders as well as criminal enterprise groups responsible for drug trafficking, money laundering, alien smuggling, crimes of violence such as murder and aggravated assault, robbery, and violent street gangs acts, as well as to intensely focus on the apprehension of dangerous repeat violent offenders.  The Anchorage SSTF full-time participants include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Anchorage Police Department (APD), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Coast Guard Investigative Services (CGIS), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) who were all active participants in the case matter.  In addition, the SSTF initiative is employed throughout Alaska with participants from the Kodiak Police Department, Kenai Police Department, Juneau Police Department, and Ketchikan Police Department.