A Columbia, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for illegally possessing a firearm and methamphetamine to distribute.
Elfonta Arnaz Stevens, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to seven years and six months in federal prison without parole.
On June 5, 2019, Stevens pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
Detectives with the Columbia Police Department located Stevens in the parking lot of Eagle Stop gas station on North Providence Road on May 2, 2018, after receiving a report that he was in possession of a firearm. The detectives placed Stevens in handcuffs to frisk him for weapons. During their frisk, a detective found a Hi-Point .380-caliber handgun in Stevens’s right front pocket, two baggies that contained a total of six grams of methamphetamine (one of the baggies contained five smaller baggies of methamphetamine) in his sock, and $263.
Stevens has 10 prior felony convictions, including three prior felony convictions for possessing a controlled substance, three prior felony convictions for resisting arrest, and prior felony convictions for stealing, property damage, tampering, and domestic assault. Stevens has also been convicted of 40 misdemeanor offenses, including resisting arrest, assault of a law enforcement officer, domestic assault, assault, harassment, trespassing, stealing, possession of marijuana, and many traffic-related offenses.
According to court records, for example, Stevens assaulted a woman he was living with by threatening to kill her, throwing a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at her, punching her in the face, choking her until she could no longer breathe and fell to the ground, and ripping the phone from the wall to prevent her from calling for help. He also assaulted another woman by grabbing the steering wheel of the car they were riding in and trying to pull it to one side, grabbing the woman by the hair on the back of her head and forcing her face towards his exposed penis, urinating in her face and ripping her weave out of her head when she attempted to escape.
Stevens was partially paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a gunshot wound he sustained in 1994 at the hands of his then-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. As a result, he has been wheelchair dependent. Most of his criminal conduct occurred following his disability.
Stevens admitted that he developed a daily habit of using methamphetamine three years ago, according to court records, and that he was using methamphetamine daily until he was arrested in this case.
