An Annapolis man has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, nearly a year after pleading guilty to the charge, which we first reported in September 2025.
U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson sentenced Dalonte Ray Jones, 22, to 42 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentence alongside FBI Baltimore Field Office Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul and Annapolis Police Department Acting Chief Amy Miguez — both in roles that have changed since Jones’s case was first announced last year.
According to court documents, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Jones’s apartment on Nov. 11, 2024, and found a Glock 17 semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine in his bedroom. The magazine, capable of holding 45 rounds, was loaded with 17 live rounds at the time. The firearm had been reported stolen in 2023, and Jones’s DNA was found on it alongside the DNA of three other individuals.
A subsequent search of Jones’s iPhone, conducted under a separate warrant, turned up numerous videos of Jones holding a variety of firearms, including the one recovered during the Nov. 11 search.
Jones was legally barred from possessing a firearm or ammunition because of two prior second-degree assault convictions, from January 2023 and April 2023. He was still on probation for the April 2023 conviction when he possessed the handgun in this case. He had faced a statutory maximum of 15 years in federal prison for the charge.
The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program combining law enforcement at all levels with community partners to reduce violent crime and gun violence. The Department of Justice relaunched the strategy in May 2021 around four core principles: building trust and legitimacy with communities, supporting community-based violence-prevention organizations, setting focused enforcement priorities, and measuring results.
U.S. Attorney Hayes credited the FBI and Annapolis Police Department for their work on the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who prosecuted the case.
