From our partners the United States Attorney’s Office – District of South Carolina
Christopher Cunningham, 34, of Columbia, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for stealing firearms from a licensed firearms dealer.
Evidence presented to the Court showed that on March 6, 2022, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Cunningham and a co-conspirator broke into a retail store on Garner’s Ferry Road and stole two shotguns and two rifles by forcefully opening a display case in the sporting goods section.
The City of Columbia Police Department responded, viewed the surveillance video of the incident, and collected fingerprints from the display case. Cunningham was identified from the surveillance footage, and further investigation confirmed the fingerprints collected from the display case belonged to Cunningham. Cunningham had prior convictions for burglary, grand larceny, malicious injury to personal property, and multiple shopliftings.
United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Cunningham to 57 months in federal prison, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case was 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.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the City of Columbia Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar J. Fyall is prosecuting the case.
###
CONTACT PERSON: Brook Andrews, First Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, [email protected], 803-929-3000.