Natchez woman pleads guilty for possession of a firearm by convicted felon

Jackson, Miss. – A Natchez woman pled guilty in federal court to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca of the Southern District of Mississippi, and Kurt Thielhorn, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

According to court documents, on December 13, 2019, Williesia Laquanda Williams, 29, made a live social media video of herself driving and displaying a firearm. At that time, Williams was on parole and her parole officer saw the video. That evening, Williams was stopped by a Natchez police officer for a traffic violation and arrested for possessing the firearm as a convicted felon. Williams had been previously convicted of assaulting a correctional officer and possessing cocaine.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced on November 16, 2021, and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bert Carraway is prosecuting the case.

This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.