Man Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Firearm Offenses

An Alabama man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for federal and local firearms offenses stemming from the discovery of weapons in his pickup truck parked near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 72, of Falkville, Alabama, was sentenced today to 46 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal and local firearms offenses stemming from the discovery of weapons in his pickup truck parked near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to court documents, Coffman traveled from Alabama to the District of Columbia several days prior to Jan. 6, 2021. He parked his red GMC Sierra pickup truck in the 300 block of First Street SE, on the morning of Jan. 6. Less than half a mile away in the U.S. Capitol Building, a joint session of the U.S. Congress was scheduled to meet in the afternoon to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Coffman admitted in his plea agreement that he exited the pickup truck at 9:20 a.m. and walked in the direction of the U.S. Capitol Building, and towards a rally near the National Mall. Inside the pickup truck were several loaded firearms within arms-reach of the driver’s seat, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun, and a cooler containing 11 mason jars filled with ignitable ingredients for Molotov cocktail incendiary weapons. Coffman also carried a loaded handgun and a loaded revolver as he walked around the area that day. A search of Coffman’s residence in Alabama later that month led to the discovery of 12 additional mason jars containing ignitable substances, each constituting the component parts of Molotov cocktails.

Coffman did not have a license to carry a pistol in the District of Columbia and had not registered any firearms or destructive devices in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by law.

Coffman has been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 6, 2021. Coffman will be placed on three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Coffman was sentenced in the District of Columbia by the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in two separate criminal cases, one brought in the District of Columbia on Jan. 7, 2021, and the other brought in the Northern District of Alabama and transferred to the District of Columbia for purposes of plea and sentencing. Coffman had pleaded guilty on Nov. 12, 2021, to two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm, a federal offense, regarding the component parts of Molotov cocktails discovered in his pickup truck in Washington, D.C., and at his residence in Alabama. Coffman also pleaded guilty to carrying a pistol without a license, a District of Columbia offense. Judge Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him to 46 months in prison on each of the federal offenses, and 15 months on the District of Columbia offense, with the time running concurrently.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Friedman for the District of Columbia and Henry Cornelius for the Northern District of Alabama prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance provided by Trial Attorney Taryn Meeks of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Birmingham and Washington Field Offices, and the U.S. Capitol Police.