Sacramento, California - Tuesday, one day before a jury trial was scheduled to begin, Hack Townsend Culling Jr., 28, of Fairfield, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, on April 19, 2019, Culling was riding his motorcycle when law enforcement officers stopped him for a traffic violation. Culling was then on post-release community supervision that was imposed after a conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. When officers searched Culling’s motorcycle, they found an FIE Titan .25-caliber handgun hidden in one of Culling’s boxing gloves. At the time he possessed that handgun, Culling had been convicted of five felony offenses, including two felony convictions for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, and convictions for threatening a crime with intent to terrorize, false imprisonment by violence, and possessing a firearm as a felon.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Fairfield Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin L. Lee and Brian A. Fogerty are prosecuting the case.

Culling is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb on Aug. 23. Culling faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.