Darin Blackburn, a 43-year-old resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to a total of 231 months in prison after being convicted for possession of a firearm by a felon and violating the terms of his supervised release. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Keli M. Neary.
According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, the incident occurred on November 17, 2021, when Harrisburg Police Officers approached Blackburn as he sat in a car. An officer noticed a small bag of marijuana visible through the passenger window. A K-9 unit was called to the scene to search for narcotics, at which point Blackburn fled but was apprehended nearby.
After Blackburn’s arrest, the owner of the vehicle arrived and denied ownership of any items found inside but permitted police to search the car. During their search, officers discovered a Hermann Weihrauch Arminus .38 caliber revolver loaded with six rounds and an additional thirteen rounds in the trunk.
Blackburn had prior convictions for armed bank robbery and two serious drug offenses committed on separate occasions. These previous convictions meant that he was legally barred from possessing firearms and made him subject to a mandatory minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
At the time of this latest offense, Blackburn was serving a federal supervised release term related to two armed bank robberies committed in 2001. He had been sentenced to over seventeen years in prison followed by three years of supervised release beginning in July 2021 upon his release from incarceration. The court imposed an additional consecutive term of 51 months for violating conditions prohibiting new criminal conduct during his supervised release.
The investigation involved both the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Harrisburg Bureau of Police. Assistant United States Attorney Michael Scalera prosecuted the case.
“This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” according to information provided by authorities.
