MADISON, WIS. -- John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Ceasar A. Hernandez, 25, Beloit, Wis., was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to four years in federal prison for possessing a firearm after having been previously convicted of a felony. Hernandez pleaded guilty to this charge on September 14, 2015.
Beginning in early 2015, Hernandez and others were the subjects of a joint federal and state task force investigating drug and gun violence in Beloit. Between January and April 2015, Hernandez sold cocaine, marijuana, and a firearm to an informant. On April 30, 2015, Hernandez was arrested at his residence where officers recovered a loaded firearm, as well as over 17 grams of cocaine.
Hernandez has a prior drug related felony conviction and is prohibited from possessing a firearm. Hernandez’s guilty plea was based on his possessing the firearm on April 30. His sentence was enhanced because he possessed the firearm in connection with a felony drug offense.
In sentencing the defendant, Judge Conley indicated that Hernandez’s previous three-year state prison sentence did little to deter his criminal behavior and that his gang activity showed lack of respect for the law. Judge Conley observed that the path that Hernandez has been on since he was an adolescent is one that will put him in prison for the rest of his life, or get him killed.
The charges against Hernandez were the result of an investigation conducted by G-ROC, a task force formed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Violent Crime Initiative, to address gang and drug-related violence in Rock County through the coordination of investigations among local and federal law enforcement agencies. Its members include the FBI; Rock County Sheriff’s Office; Rock County District Attorney’s Office; Beloit Police Department; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura A. Przybylinski Finn.