A federal judge sentenced Skip Lomax to 151 months in federal prison Tuesday for meth trafficking, possession of a destructive device and a weapons offense.
Lomax, 33, was arrested March 24, 2016, after leading local and federal law enforcement officers on a high speed chase through Texarkana, Ark., shortly after selling a “dead man’s” grenade and a fully automatic machine gun to an undercover source. The grenade had been modified so that it would explode immediately when the pin is removed, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in 2016.
Lomax flipped his truck on Arkansas Blvd. in Texarkana, Ark., as he drove in excess of 80 miles per hour during the chase. About 30 people were evacuated from a nearby church as a precaution because of fear other explosives might be in the wrecked truck. In the truck, officers discovered a cache of weapons that Lomax’s prior felony conviction made it illegal for him to have. Seized were six pistols, one of which had a filed off serial number, and some unidentified pills. Agents test fired the machine gun Lomax sold along with a grenade for $1,000, and found it to be “fully functioning.”
Lomax appeared for sentencing Tuesday in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas with Bruce Eddy of the Federal Public Defenders Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wulff prosecuted the case.
U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey sentenced Lomax to 151 months in federal prison for trafficking methamphetamine. Lomax received 10-year sentences for possession of a destructive device and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. Several other weapons charges were dismissed Tuesday as part of Lomax’s plea bargain. Lomax will be supervised by federal probation once he is released from prison. If he violates the terms of his supervised release he could be ordered to spend more time in prison.
Hickey agreed to recommend that Lomax be allowed to participate in an intensive drug treatment program and mental health counseling while in prison and to recommend that he be placed at a federal prison in Texarkana. There is no parole from federal prison.
Lomax is still facing charges of fleeing in a vehicle and possession of Ephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine in Miller County. He is scheduled to appear before a Miller County circuit judge on the state charges in October.
