Yellowhammer Times

A Shelby County man has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona.

U.S. District Court Judge Madeline H. Haikala sentenced John Henry Edmondson, 29, of Shelby, Alabama, to 75 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in April to the charge of illegal possession of a firearm.

Court documents state that on June 30, 2024, a deputy with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office conducted a welfare check at Edmondson’s home concerning a minor. Edmondson refused entry to the deputy. The following day, deputies and Edmondson’s parole officer returned with a juvenile pick-up order and entered the residence to recover the minor. While inside, they seized two pistols and drug paraphernalia.

After obtaining a state search warrant for the residence, deputies found additional items including a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, camouflage body armor, suspected narcotics and more drug paraphernalia.

Edmondson was barred from possessing firearms due to prior felony convictions in Shelby County. In May 2021 he pleaded guilty to Domestic Violence by Suffocation or Strangulation and Certain Persons Forbidden to Possess a Pistol; in August 2022 he pleaded guilty to Unlawful Distribution of a Controlled Substance.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this case along with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel S. McBrayer prosecuted it.

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