Source: US FBI
A woman who bought at least nine firearms for a felon was sentenced on July 28, 2025, to more than three years in federal prison.
LaDonna Henderson, age 28, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 10, 2025 guilty plea to eight counts of false statement during purchase of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
Information from sentencing showed that Henderson purchased nine firearms and attempted to buy a tenth firearm in a six-week period in 2023. Henderson made false statements about her drug use and the real purchaser of the firearms in connection with these purchases. She gave these firearms to her boyfriend at the time, Christopher Hoover, who was a felon and a cocaine and marijuana user. Hoover trafficked some of the firearms. Four of the firearms Henderson bought were recovered by law enforcement from felons or drug users. Hoover was prosecuted for his possession of firearms bought by Henderson and sentenced to 93 months’ imprisonment on September 17, 2024. Four other individuals were sentenced for their possession of firearms bought by Henderson and related conduct. Jayquine Steele, a drug user, was sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment on June 27, 2024. Jeremy Phillips, a felon, was sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment on July 22, 2024. Patrelle Green-Bowman, a felon, was sentenced to 105 months’ imprisonment on September 9, 2024. Walter Smith, a felon, was sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment on January 8, 2025.
Henderson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Henderson was sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Henderson was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.
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.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 23-CR-2067.
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