Judge calls Cedar Rapids man convicted of gun crime ‘violent menace’

CEDAR RAPIDS — A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Cedar Rapids man to more than nine years in prison, calling him a “violent menace.”

Nyle Brocks, 28, pleaded guilty in December to possession of a firearm after being convicted of domestic violence. It was his 17th conviction.

During sentencing, U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams referred to Brocks’ convictions, saying Brocks was an “extreme danger” and“violent menace.”

“Every day Brocks was out of circulation was a slightly safer day for society in Cedar Rapids,” Williams said.

Williams sentenced Brocks to 115 months in prison and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after prison.

According to the plea agreement, Brocks acknowledged he had been convicted of domestic assault last year and that he’d had a pistol at a large fight in Cedar Rapids on May 23, 2020, where at least one shot was fired.

Witnesses told police a man, later identified as Brocks, was hiding behind a nearby house. When officers approached, Brocks ran from them, tossing away a Taurus 9 mm pistol with an extended magazine that holds 25 rounds of ammunition, according to the plea.

It took multiple officers and a Taser to subdue Brocks when he resisted arrest, the document said.

A sentencing document said a Cedar Rapids individual reported two of his firearms were stolen last year after Brocks had been in the person’s home in the room where the guns were kept. A few hours later, Brocks was found at the fight in Cedar Rapids. No specific location was given for the fight.

A witness shot video footage of the fight that showed an individual firing a pistol from the general direction where Brocks was seen, but it could not be determined whether Brocks or someone else had fired the gun, the sentencing document states.

Brocks will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until he’s taken to a federal prison.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Schunk and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the FBI.

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