Texarkana Man Sentenced To Nearly 5 Years For Machinegun Possession

TEXARKANA, Texas — A Texarkana man has been sentenced to federal prison for a firearms violation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

Jakeem Butler, 25, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a machinegun and was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III on July 20, 2026.

According to information presented in court, on December 31, 2024, Butler was stopped for a traffic violation in Texarkana. During the stop, officers detected the strong odor of marijuana leading to a search of the vehicle. During the search, officers located a firearm equipped with an illegal machinegun conversion device, also commonly referred to as a Glock-switch.

Machinegun conversion devices are small mechanisms that can be attached to the rear of the slide of a firearm, converting a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic machinegun. Federal law defines a machinegun as a weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texarkana Texas Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Richards.