(Court Reports - Photo Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

CHARLESTON — Charles Ray Mackey, 43, of Parkersburg, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to four years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on Nov. 16, 2023, law enforcement officers conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by Mackey in Parkersburg. Officers searched the vehicle following the traffic stop and found a German Sports Guns model Firefly .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Federal law prohibits a person with a prior felony conviction from possessing a firearm or ammunition. Mackey was previously convicted of non-aggravated robbery, assault during the commission of a felony upon a person 65 years of age or older and conspiracy to commit non-aggravated robbery in Wood County Circuit Court in 2001.

Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston commended the investigative work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Parkersburg Police Department.

U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston imposed the sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley C. Shamblin and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Longwell prosecuted the case.