POSTED: Wednesday, August 8, 2012 --- 8:15 a.m.

Madison, Wis. - John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Gerald Hopewell, 37, of Madison, Wis., was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge William Conley to 120 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Hopewell pleaded guilty to this charge on June 12, 2012.

On August 31, 2011, a citizen reported that there was a man on a City of Madison bus who had a gun in his possession. Officers responded to the scene and found the defendant with a back pack on his lap. He was eventually arrested and a .357 magnum
revolver and .357 magnum caliber ammunition were found in his backpack.

In sentencing Hopewell, Judge Conley noted that Hopewell had led a life of addiction and crime and that the decision to take the gun onto the bus was just the most recent of many bad decisions the defendant has made in his life.

The charges against Hopewell were the result of an investigation conducted by the Madison Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman.
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