Birmingham Man Sentenced To Prison On Firearms Charges

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A Birmingham man was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on multiple firearms charges. Eilone Austin Bland, 28, was charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of being a violent felon in possession of body armor.

Bland pleaded guilty to these charges in January 2021.

In June 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Bland for being a felon in possession of a firearm. That charge stemmed from a March 2019 traffic stop by Birmingham police officers, who found a Taurus 9-millimeter pistol in Bland’s pocket during the stop. Bland had a 2016 state court conviction for attempted murder, which barred him from possessing firearms.

In July 2020, when the United States Deputy Marshals arrested Bland at his home, they found a .40 caliber Glock pistol and a body armor vest in his bedroom. A superseding indictment was filed charging him for possessing the second pistol and the body armor.

The ATF investigated the cases with the assistance of the Birmingham Police Department and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Baty prosecuted.