Parrottsville Man Arraigned on Firearms and Stolen Vehicle Charges |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Tennessee
August 19, 2010
GREENEVILLE, TN—Larry Donald Gunter, 56, of Parrottsville, Tennessee, was arraigned on August 18, 2010 in United States District Court in Greeneville after a federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging him with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, and possession of a stolen motor vehicle which had been transported across state lines.
Magistrate Judge Dennis Inman advised Gunter of the charges and Gunter entered a plea of not guilty. Trial was set for October 19, 2010. Gunter was arrested on July 16, 2010, after being charged in a criminal complaint and has been held without bond since that arrest.
According to the criminal complaint, officers from the Cocke County Sheriff’s Office went to Gunter’s Parrottsville residence on July 8, 2010, to serve an arrest warrant for an earlier traffic offense. They found a loaded sawed-off shotgun in his residence and also located a passenger van which had been stolen from a Christian youth group the previous evening from the Mount Sterling Gap Trail parking area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Items from the van were found in Gunter’s car.
Gunter faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 each on the stolen vehicle and sawed-off shotgun charges. Gunter faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison up to life for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Park Service, Tennessee HighwayPatrol Criminal Investigation Division, and the Cocke CountySheriff’s Office with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant
U.S. Attorney Neil Smith will represent the United States.
Members of the public are reminded that these are only charges and that every person is presumed innocent until their guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.