Jackson, Miss. – A Jackson man was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Kurt Thielhorn of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ledrick Antoine Simmons, 39, pled guilty to the charge on April 29, 2021.

According to court documents, on January 29, 2020, Madison Police officers obtained an arrest warrant for Simmons for felony fleeing after they attempted to detain him for possible involvement in the facilitation of prostitution.  Officers were able to locate Simmons in a vehicle at the intersection of President and Amite Street, in downtown Jackson.  When officers approached Simmons, he attempted to evade arrest and rammed another vehicle with his car.  Officers were able to take Simmons into custody.  Officers recovered a handgun from Simmons’s waistband during the arrest.  At the time of the arrest, Simmons was a convicted felon and has multiple felony convictions in Hinds County.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Madison Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, and the Jackson Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chris Wansley.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, 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.