Cedar Rapids man draws 4 years in prison for having gun as felon

CEDAR RAPIDS — A 23-year-old Cedar Rapids man -- who a judge once noted had a lengthy history of gun violence for someone his age -- was sentenced Friday to nearly four years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm.

Malachi Patton Handley pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

At the plea hearing, Handley admitted he possessed an SCCY Firearms pistol between December 2022 and March 2023 after he had been convicted of three felonies.

A Marion police officer testified during a detention hearing in 2023 that a friend of Handley’s said Handley met him Dec. 1, 2022, and took one of his 9 mm guns and pointed it at him, and then took another gun from him. The friend refused to cooperate with police, saying he was afraid Handley would retaliate.

On March 4, 2022, police conducted a traffic stop on Handley’s car, and officers detected the small of marijuana, according to court documents. Officers found a small amount of marijuana in the center console, along with the 9 mm gun he had stolen from his friend.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Roberts, during the 2023 detention hearing, said Handley’s criminal history was “troubling.”

He noted Handley had a charge of carrying weapons as a teen that he had felony convictions for willful injury and going armed with intent in state court, as well as parole violations and assaultive behavior while in prison for those charges.

U.S. District Chief Judge C.J. Williams on Friday sentenced Handley to 46 months in prison and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after prison.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Cedar Rapids and Marion police departments, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI.

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