Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Andre Miller Jr., 24, Madison, Wisconsin, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 3 years in federal prison for possessing a machinegun. Miller pleaded guilty to this charge on November 8, 2024. The prison term will be followed by 3 years of supervised release.
On October 27, 2021, Town of Madison Police Department officers responded to a reported stolen vehicle parked in Madison. Miller was identified as the driver of the stolen vehicle. When an officer attempted to make contact with Miller, he fled. When officers caught up with Miller, they saw a gun magazine in the backpack he had been carrying. Officers then searched Miller’s backpack and recovered a loaded Glock 26 9mm handgun with a machinegun conversion device. A machinegun conversion device is an illegal, after-market device that converts a semi-automatic handgun into a fully functioning machinegun. In the backpack, officers also located 48 grams of cocaine and 10 grams of heroin.
“Machinegun conversion devices are extraordinarily dangerous,” said U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea. “These devices are often used in weapons that are not designed to function as machine guns, thus making the weapons incredibly difficult to aim. Discharging a weapon equipped with such a device in a public area endangers every child and adult within range. Keeping these illegal devices off the streets in Wisconsin and keeping our citizens free of fear from these weapons is one of my highest priorities,” said O’Shea.
At sentencing, Judge Conley said that he found it very troubling that Miller was going around with a machinegun that was connected to drug trafficking.
The charge against Miller was the result of an investigation conducted by the Town of Madison Police Department and the ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force consisting of federal agents from ATF and Task Force Officers (TFOs) from local agencies including the Dane County and Clark County Sheriff’s Offices and the Fitchburg, Madison, Sun Prairie, and La Crosse Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven P. Anderson and William M. Levins prosecuted this case.
This case has been brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the U.S. Justice Department’s program to reduce violent crime. The PSN approach emphasizes coordination between state and federal prosecutors and all levels of law enforcement to address gun crime, especially felons illegally possessing firearms and ammunition and violent and drug crimes that involve the use of firearms.