GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Kalamazoo man who federal authorities said had a handgun modified to operate as a machine gun will spend at least five years in prison.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten announced Tuesday that 32-year-old Kalamazoo resident Juwara Jawan Compton Jr. was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Compton was charged in October of 2023 under Safe Summer 2023. Safe Summer is a gun-violence enforcement program under which the U.S. Attorney’s Office said they have committed to prosecute all firearms offenders who possess crime guns (that is, guns previously fired in the commission of a crime).
The gun Compton was found in possession of was loaded, had an extended magazine and was modified with a "switch" that made it operate as a machinegun.
“Our Safe Summer 2024 Program is underway right now and we mean what we say: We will federally prosecute all firearms offenders caught with crime guns,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten. “Mr. Compton carried an illegal machinegun equipped with an extended magazine, capable of inflicting mass destruction and senseless trauma. He will likely now serve years more in prison because he was prosecuted under the Safe Summer program. My team and our partners will not rest until every person, in every neighborhood, in every community is safe from violence.”
According to court documents, officers responded to the area of the Thunderbird Bar in Kalamazoo in September of 2023. There was a report of a possible felonious assault. When officers arrived on scene, they found a vehicle registered to Compton's sister. In the backseat, they found the modified firearm.
Compton had previous felony convictions, including domestic violence, making him a felon in possession of an illegal firearm. Previously, he was convicted of domestic violence in incidents where he threw a woman across a room multiple times and destroyed her cell phone and another incident in which he threw a paint can at his girlfriend and hit her in the head. He then threw her to the ground, placed his knee on her chest, pulled her hair and bit her left arm. Finally, in 2020, he threatened yet another female victim with a metal pipe.
“Individuals who choose a life of fear and violence to invoke criminal intimidation will be removed from our communities,” said ATF Detroit Special Agent in Charge James Deir. “Mr. Compton is a convicted felon possessing illegal firearms and a serial domestic violence abuser who is going to have a lot of free time to reflect on his consistent track record of illegal activity.”
Officials said that Chief Judge Jarbou noted the serious nature of Compton's crime at the sentencing. The judge said that having a gun is made even more dangerous when that possession is coupled with someone with Compton’s criminal record. She also noted that Compton’s criminal history, particularly his previous failures to complete periods of probation successfully, indicated that Compton “has no respect for the law” and had not been deterred by criminal sentences he had received in the past.
Under the Safe Summer 2024 program, the U.S. Attorney's Office said they will prosecute all cases that satisfy two main criteria.
The first is the case must involve a federal firearms offense. They said the two most common offenses are felon in possession, which prohibits previously convicted felons from possessing a gun, and possession of a machine gun, which generally prohibits persons from possessing fully automatic guns.
The second is the case must involve a crime gun, meaning any gun that has previously been fired in the commission of a crime.
These two criteria focus federal efforts on what the U.S. Attorney's Office said are the few individuals driving gun violence in their communities.
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