BOISE - Daniel Andrew Mills, 41, of Jerome, Idaho, was sentenced today to serve ten years in prison for unlawful possession of firearms and violating the conditions of his supervised release, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge sentenced Mills to 100 months imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms and 24 months, to be served consecutively, for violating the terms of his supervised release on a prior unlawful possession of a firearm offense. Mills was convicted of possessing two firearms after a two-day trial in Boise in October of last year.
During the two-day trial, the jury heard evidence that Mills, a convicted felon who was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service on a federal warrant for a supervised release violation, was driving through Jerome at 2:15 a.m. on January 11, 2016, when a Jerome County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to stop him for a broken taillight. Mills fled in his car, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. Mills’ car became disabled after he crashed through a fence and hit a parked vehicle. Mills refused all commands to exit the vehicle and repeatedly stuck the barrel of a shotgun outside of the driver’s window. The armed stand-off lasted several hours before a Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office hostage negotiator talked Mills out of the car and he was arrested without incident. Inside of the car, deputies found a loaded shotgun and a loaded .25 pistol. At the time Mills was in possession of the firearms, he was on supervised release for a prior federal conviction for unlawfully possessing a firearm. Mills has previously been convicted of assault with intent to commit a serious felony, aiding and abetting delivery of controlled substance, escape, forgery, eluding arrest, and possession of controlled substance.
At sentencing today, Judge Lodge noted the Mills posed a “significant danger to the community, lied under oath at trial, and this made it impossible to impose a sentence of less than ten years.”
The case was investigated by the Jerome County Sheriff’s Office, the Jerome City Police Department, the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.