MISSOURI MAN SENTENCED FOR FEDERAL FIREARMS VIOLATIONS

(Beaumont, TX) United States Attorney Matthew D. Orwig announced today that a 45-year-old Missouri man has been sentenced to 108 months in federal prison for federal firearms charges in the Eastern District of Texas. BILLY GENE MCGEE was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone.

According to information presented in court, on March 25, 2005, a Silsbee Police Officer attempted to make a traffic stop on a vehicle with Missouri license plates. Instead of pulling over, the driver of the vehicle accelerated and fled. McGee, a passenger in the vehicle, fired an illegal short-barrel shotgun through the sunroof of the vehicle in the direction of the patrol car. McGee and the driver then abandoned the vehicle and fled into a heavily wooded area sparking a massive manhunt by federal, state and local authorities. McGee was eventually apprehended in Paducah, Kentucky on April 5, 2005 and extradited to Texas.

McGee was indicted on federal firearms charges on December 14, 2005 for possession of an unregistered firearm and receipt of an illegally manufactured firearm. He pleaded guilty to the charges on May 16, 2006.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, the Silsbee Police Department, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Lumberton Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Department of Corrections, the Southeast Texas Air Rescue, the Southeast Texas Search and Rescue, the Southeast Missouri Narcotics Task Force and the Paducah, Kentucky Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randall Fluke.