Kellyton man sentenced to prison for federal gun, drug convictions
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Kilpatrick Cornelius McKinney
By Christa Jennings
Senior Staff Writer
Last Tuesday, 38-year-old Kilpatrick Cornelius McKinney of Kellyton was sentenced to 280 months, or 23 years, in federal prison.
The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart. In addition to this sentence, McKinney must serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison sentence.
According to court records and evidence presented at his trial in October, the U.S. Marshals Service and Alabama State Bureau of Investigation agents were attempting to locate McKinney to serve an outstanding arrest warrant. On November 16, 2018, agents discovered that McKinney was at his home in Coosa County.
Upon entering the residence, they found McKinney hiding in his bedroom closet, according to reports. During his arrest, they noticed a distinct odor of marijuana and saw narcotics and drug paraphernalia in plain view.
Investigators then obtained a search warrant for his residence based on those observations. Upon executing that search warrant, investigators located a variety of his personal effects in his bedroom, as well as a Taurus .38 caliber revolver that was found in a Crown Royal bag inside a larger black bag with approximately one pound of marijuana.
McKinney has multiple felony convictions and as such is prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm.
Ultimately, the search resulted in agents seizing two guns, approximately 452 grams of marijuana, 15 grams of powder cocaine, 27 tablets containing methamphetamine, and approximately $3,870 cash.
Following his conviction in October in connection to those charges from November 2018, his sentence was determined by a federal district court judge after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, including his potential status as an armed career criminal.
Taking all evidence and his criminal history into account, he was then sentenced last week to the 280 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
He received a lengthy sentence primarily because of his extensive criminal history. McKinney has been arrested on felony charges, including drug-related charges, in Coosa County numerous times, as well as having been arrested multiple times in other counties by other agencies.
McKinney’s case was prosecuted pursuant to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, a program in which U.S. attorneys’ offices work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement to “develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime and make neighborhoods safer for everyone.”
The U.S. Marshals Service, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) investigated this case, with assistance from the Coosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Assistant U.S. attorneys Mark E. Andreu and J. Patrick Lamb prosecuted the case.