Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Charles Edward Ketcher, Jr., age 33, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for illegally possessing a firearm.
The charges arose from an investigation by the Adair County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
On March 15, 2024, Ketcher pleaded guilty to one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm. According to investigators, on October 14, 2023, Ketcher was captured on a surveillance camera carrying a rifle. At the time Ketcher possessed the rifle, he knew he had previously been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing. Ketcher was remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael E. Robinson represented the United States at the sentencing hearing.