Marty Lee Vaughn, 37, of Belton, was recently sentenced in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. United States District Court Judge Bruce H. Hendricks of Greenville accepted Vaughn’s guilty plea and imposed a sentence of 51 months in federal prison, followed by court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
Evidence presented by the government established that on April 21, 2017, Liberty Police Department Officers responded to a vehicle stuck in a ditch and found Vaughn asleep in the driver’s seat. As Vaughn was awakened and removed from the car, officers observed ammunition fall from Vaughn’s lap to the ground. Officers also observed the top of a firearm beside the driver’s seat. As the vehicle was inventoried prior to being towed from the scene, an officer recovered the .357 caliber pistol from beside the seat.
Federal law prohibits Vaughn from possessing firearms and ammunition due to prior convictions for offenses to include burglary.
The case was investigated by the Liberty Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project CeaseFire initiative, which aggressively prosecutes firearm cases. Project CeaseFire is South Carolina’s implementation of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), 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. Assistant United States Attorney Max Cauthen of the Greenville office prosecuted the case.
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