After pleading guilty in November, a Juneau resident was sentenced Wednesday for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Mack Arthur Parker, 52, was sentenced to just under three years (34 months) for the charge, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess handed down the sentence Wednesday.
According to Parker’s plea deal, a Juneau Police Department officer found Parker unconscious behind the wheel of a running car that was blocking traffic on June 25, 2017. The officer woke Parker, according to the plea deal, and Parker immediately reached for a Smith and Wesson Model Walther PPS 9mm caliber pistol located under his leg.
The officer reached into the car and was able to secure the gun, according to the release, and found that the gun had a loaded magazine and a round in the chamber. According to the plea deal, Parker later told police that he had found the gun just before police found him and had loaded it after taking the gun. According to the plea deal, investigators later found the gun had been stolen from the Anchorage area.
According to the press release, Parker also had methamphetamine, marijuana, a glass pipe and a digital scale in the car when police found him.
Parker had previously been convicted for first-degree robbery on Feb. 11, 2001 in Anchorage Superior Court, according to the plea deal. With this conviction on his record, Parker was not allowed to own a gun. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Schmidt, who prosecuted the case, said Parker was living in Juneau in 2017.
JPD and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) assisted in the investigation in the case, according to the release.
This coming Tuesday, Parker is scheduled to be sentenced on burglary charges for breaking into the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in June 2017, according to online court records.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
