Pulaski County man sentenced to 195 months in prison for possessing firearms as a convicted felon | The Arkansas Democratic Gazette

A Pulaski County man with a criminal history dating back to 1999 was sentenced Thursday to just over 16 years in federal prison under the Armed Career Criminal Act for being a felon in possession of a firearm .

Christopher Charles Mathis, 43, of Little Rock, was indicted on May 3, 2023, by a federal grand jury in Little Rock in connection with an arrest by Little Rock police on July 22, 2022. Mathis pleaded guilty to accusation on February 13. before U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr.

Mathis has previous convictions for drug possession with intent to deliver, residential burglary, third-degree domestic battery and first-degree terroristic threatening. According to court records, Mathis faced a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and could have received a life sentence.

On July 22, 2022, officers with the Little Rock Police Department responded to an apartment complex located in the 5000 block of West 65th Street in Little Rock, after receiving a 911 call regarding a male openly carrying a firearm. Witnesses told police that Mathis, who they said did not live at the complex, was the person carrying the gun, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock. The release said a witness told police Mathis had previously threatened him and was banned from the property.

A gun found by a maintenance worker behind trash cans nearby, the release said, was identified by witnesses as the same one they had seen Mathis carrying.

Moody sentenced Mathis to 195 months in federal prison and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after leaving federal custody.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Bowen and Stephanie Mazzanti. Mathis was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Kristen Green.