Metro-east felon said he had gun to protect himself from robbers. Now he is headed to prison

An East St. Louis man was sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Bernard L. Mosley Jr., 23, was sentenced Tuesday in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Illinois. He will also serve two-year term of supervised release following his release from prison.

Mosley was indicted by a federal grand jury in October of 2020 and pleaded guilty in February, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office.

Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service found Mosley at a house in East St. Louis and arrested him on an active warrant. They saw a loaded .380 caliber Ruger handgun laying in plain view, according to court documents. Mosley acknowledged that the gun belonged to him and told agents he purchased it as protection from robbers, the documents state.

Mosley also admitted to making a phone call from the St. Clair County Jail identifying a government witness to associates in an attempt to “dissuade the the witness from cooperating with the government.”

Mosley had been previously convicted on a 2010 federal drug charge.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, and the Illinois State Police.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ali Burns and David Dean.

This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 9:00 AM.