Auburn Man Sentenced to 180 Months in Prison

FORT WAYNE - Joshua J. Hardy, 35 years old, of Auburn, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Holly A. Brady after pleading guilty to two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of possessing a machinegun, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Hardy was sentenced to 180 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, on multiple occasions between April 2023 and May 2024, law enforcement found Hardy in possession of machineguns and illegally possessed firearms. Due to a prior felony conviction, Hardy was prohibited from possessing the firearms in this case.

This investigation culminated in Hardy's arrest on April 25, 2024. Law enforcement attempted to pull Hardy over for having an active warrant, and Hardy fled in a motor vehicle. Hardy ultimately crashed the vehicle into a building and was apprehended after a brief foot pursuit. Inside the vehicle Hardy was driving, officers located eight machinegun conversion devices. A machinegun conversion device converts a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic firearm and qualifies as a machinegun under federal law.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the help of the Auburn Police Department, the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department, the Fort Wayne Police Department, the Garrett Police Department, the Hamilton Police Department, the Indiana State Police, and the Steuben County Sheriff's Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Teresa L. Ashcraft.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.