A Mobile man arrested after a 2013 home invasion has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing shotguns that authorities say were used during the crime.
Larry Gene Broadnax, 26, received the sentence after pleading guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. His 2010 convictions for first-degree robbery and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance barred him from legally having a gun.
The traffic stop and the weapons
According to court documents, Broadnax possessed a .20-gauge and a .12-gauge shotgun on April 30, 2013. Mobile County sheriff’s deputies arrested him and three others following a traffic stop during which the shotguns were found.
Broadnax, along with Jeffery Cook, 28, Demarion Shavers, 19, and Allen Walker, 25, were arrested and charged with first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and third-degree assault, according to earlier reports. Deputies said the four matched descriptions of men who had taken part in a home invasion just after midnight in the 5511 block of Albert Evans Road North.
An account of the invasion
The victim told investigators that someone knocked on his front door while another person was visiting. When he answered, he was confronted by three men armed with shotguns who then ransacked the home, police said. Two visitors who had stepped outside were assaulted by the suspects.
Federal court records state that one of the individuals involved, not Broadnax, also raped a woman inside the house during the invasion. The gravity of that account underscored why federal prosecutors pursued the firearms charge against a defendant already barred from possessing weapons.
Terms of the sentence
Beyond the decade in federal prison, U.S. District Court Judge Ginny Granade ordered Broadnax to serve three years of supervised probation and to undergo substance abuse and mental health treatment. The judge also directed that, should Broadnax be convicted and sentenced in Mobile County Circuit Court, his federal sentence would run at the same time as any state term.
At the time of the federal sentencing, the state charges against him remained under consideration for indictment by a grand jury, leaving open the possibility of additional proceedings in county court.
Federal firearms charges as a tool
The case illustrated how federal firearms statutes are often used against defendants with prior felony convictions, allowing prosecutors to secure lengthy sentences even as related state charges work their way through local courts. Because federal law forbids convicted felons from possessing guns, the mere presence of the shotguns, independent of how they were used, was enough to support a substantial prison term.
For the victims of the Albert Evans Road home invasion, the federal sentence marked one measure of accountability while the broader state case continued to develop. Investigators had described a violent late-night intrusion, and the outcome in federal court ensured that at least one of the men taken into custody after the traffic stop would spend years behind bars regardless of how the state charges ultimately resolved.