ROANOKE, Va. – A South Boston, Va., man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for brandishing a machine gun and possessing distribution quantities of cocaine.
Following a two-day jury trial in May 2025, Richard Elijah Jacobs, 27, was found guilty of possessing with the intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, possessing a machine gun in furtherance of drug trafficking, and possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
“The Western District will seek firm and swift accountability against those who illegally possess machine guns and other firearms while trafficking narcotics in the Western District of Virginia,” Acting United States Attorney Robert N. Tracci said today. “I commend the work of our partners at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, South Boston Police Department, and Halifax Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for their outstanding assistance with this case.”
“Today’s sentence sends a clear and unequivocal message: those that repeatedly violate federal firearms laws and terrorize our communities will be held accountable. Mr. Jacobs is a previously convicted felon had no right to possess firearms of any kind, much less a machine gun conversion device,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their diligent efforts on bringing this case to justice. We will continue to relentlessly pursue violent offenders and remove illegal firearms from our streets to keep families safe.”
According to evidence presented at trial and sentencing, on February 3, 2024, South Boston Police officers responded to a 911 call reporting that two men in a Jaguar brandished firearms at people in downtown South Boston causing the people to flee. Officers quickly found Jacobs beside the reported Jaguar, parked in a nearby shopping plaza. His chambered and loaded firearms were in the car: a .45-caliber Glock pistol with a 40-round drum magazine beneath the driver’s floormat and a RF-15 pistol behind the driver’s seat, both equipped with machine gun conversion devices allowing fully automatic fire. Inside the Jaguar’s trunk, officers also found thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine powder, cocaine base, and marijuana, as well as paraphernalia for packaging and distributing the drugs.
Alexander James Hiett, Jacobs’s passenger on February 3, 2024, previously pled guilty to related gun charges and was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
The South Boston Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. The United States also extends its thanks to the Halifax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for their assistance.
Assistant United States Attorneys Drew Inman and Kelly McGann prosecuted the case for the United States.