-Press Release, U.S. Dept. of Justice

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today, United States District Judge Malcolm J. Howard sentenced JAMAAL RAY CURTIS, 36, of Oxford to 188 months’ imprisonment, followed by 5 years of supervised release. CURTIS pled guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on January 11, 2018.

In 2016, investigators with the Oxford Police Department (OPD) received information that CURTIS was selling narcotics from his residence in Oxford. CURTIS was on post-release supervision arising from state charges, so on December 13, 2016, members of the North Carolina Department of Probation and Parole Services conducted a compliance check at CURTIS’s residence. Finding that CURTIS was not home, OPD learned that he was at the Oxford residence of his child’s mother.

When investigators responded to that residence and knocked on the door, they spotted CURTIS attempting to leave through a side door. Officers entered the residence and found CURTIS attempting to hide in a back bedroom. After CURTIS admitted that he had a firearm in a nearby coat, officers found and seized a .25 caliber pistol from a coat pocket. On CURTIS’s person, officers found over an ounce of cocaine and $3,000.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Oxford Police Department, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF).

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