Source: Office of United States Attorneys
WASHINGTON — Alonte Wilkinson, 31, of Washington D.C., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 57 months in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm, a “ghost gun” that was recovered after he was stopped by police on suspicion of shoplifting from a CVS in Southwest Washington D.C.
The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Wilkinson pleaded guilty on October 23, 2024, to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon. In addition to the 57-month prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered Wilkinson to serve three years of supervised release.
According to court documents on January 17, 2024, about 5 p.m., MPD officers were conducting a retail theft operation at the CVS on the 1100 block of 4th Street SW. At 5:18 p.m., Wilkinson and another man entered the store. At 5:22 p.m., two CVS employees took note of Wilkinson and the other man exiting the store without paying for their items. The officers stopped the pair as they walked northbound on 4th Street SW.
MPD officers searched both men. One of the officers recovered a firearm from Wilkinson’s right jacket pocket. Wilkinson claimed he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, but that he did not have the license in his possession. The firearm recovered from the Wilkinson was a Glock 27 .40 caliber pistol with one live round in the chamber, and 12 more rounds in the magazine. The serial number on the pistol was obliterated and rendered unreadable. A check of the D.C. Gun Registry database revealed that Wilkinson did not have a license to carry a firearm nor was the firearm in his possession registered to him, given the obliterated serial number.
A criminal history search confirmed that Wilkinson was a felon, having been previously convicted for a firearms offense in 2019 for which he was sentenced to prison for more than one year.
This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Emory Cole.
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