NORFOLK, Va. — A man was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Friday for having a firearm with illegal modifications as a convicted felon in Norfolk.
The sentencing for Joquan Dominick Owens, 26, came after he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a convicted non-violent felon and to possessing a trigger activator, the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said.
Owens' charges stem from an incident that happened on May 4, 2022, near the intersection of Monticello Avenue and 28th Street. According to the office, Owens was spotted by a Norfolk police officer standing by a car truck and handling a pistol.
"The officer knew Mr. Owens from previous interactions and knew him to be a convicted felon," the office wrote in a news release. "When the officer approached Mr. Owens, Mr. Owens fled on foot."
Prosecutors said the officer searched the car and found the pistol, which was equipped with an extended magazine and modified with a trigger activator that allows semi-automatic guns to fire multiple rounds with one pull of the trigger. The gun was also found to have been stolen.
“Trigger activators are the latest escalation in the arms race we see on American streets, turning a semiautomatic pistol into a machine gun,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi wrote. “We take the possession of trigger activators very seriously and seek sanctions appropriate to these crimes.”
In addition to time in prison, Owens has a suspended sentence of one year and nine months on the condition that he finish two years of supervised probation and three years of uniform good behavior after he is released.
