United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa
09/22/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/22/2021 15:27
Waterloo Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Buying Gun for Boyfriend
A Waterloo woman who purchased a gun for her boyfriend and attempted to purchase at least one other gun for him and a friend was sentenced yesterday to 12 months in prison.
Ashley Nichole Lies, age 26, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison sentence after an April 12, 2021 guilty plea to making a false statement during purchase of a firearm.
Information disclosed at sentencing and at her plea hearing showed that, in July 2020, Lies purchased a 9mm pistol from a business in Cedar Falls, Iowa. During the purchase, Lies represented to the business that she was purchasing the gun for herself. Lies was actually buying the gun for her boyfriend at the time, who was prohibited from possessing guns because he had a prior conviction for domestic abuse. The gun was seized from Lies' boyfriend a few weeks after she purchased it. Investigators also determined that Lies attempted to purchase at least one other guns for Lies' boyfriend and another friend but was denied.
Lies was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Lies was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day imprisonment. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Lies will have to pay $100 to the special assessment fund.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Corkery and investigated by the Cedar Falls Police Department, the Waterloo Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice's violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 20-CR-02061.
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