Guilty Verdict Returned in First Jury Trial Involving a Felony Machine Gun Charge Since New Firearms Law Went Into Effect

Press Release

Felony Crime of Possessing a Machine Gun in Effect since March 2024

WASHINGTON - Keimontay Holston, 21, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty in Superior Court of possession of a machine gun, possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela A. Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

The verdict was returned on October 2, 2024, following a jury trial. Superior Court Judge Robert Salerno scheduled sentencing for December 11, 2024.

According to the government's evidence, at approximately 6:00 a.m. on June 6, 2024, members of MPD's Robbery Suppression Unit executed a search warrant at the defendant's apartment, located in the 2300 block of Hartford Street, SE. Upon entering the apartment, law enforcement officers encountered Holston in the hallway, as he was leaving the dining room of the residence. Once stopped, officers searched the apartment and recovered a black 9mm Glock 17. The Glock had a "giggle" switch attached to it, and it had a magazine containing 17 rounds of ammunition. Officers also found an additional magazine with 31 rounds of ammunition in the defendant's apartment. The recovered firearm was fully functional, and the "giggle" switch attachment allowed a shooter to fire multiple rounds of ammunition with a single pull of the trigger, converting the Glock 17 into a machine gun.

Holston was arrested during the execution of the search warrant and has been detained since.

Holston is the first individual convicted at trial of the felony offense of possession of a machine gun, which was increased from a misdemeanor to a felony under the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024.

"As a result of the recently enacted Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act, it is now a felony to possess one of these conversion devices that transform handguns into the types of machine guns that mobsters used in the 1920s and 30s," said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves. "This is the first guilty verdict, at trial, under this new statute, and we expect many more such verdicts. Our Office will continue to make aggressive use of this new statute to try to remove these devices from the streets in the same way that laws passed in the 1930s helped to remove machine guns from our streets."

This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Geoffrey Comber of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

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Updated October 4, 2024