Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Wilcox County man was sentenced in federal court for being an unlawful drug user in possession of stolen firearms this week.

United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announced that Pine Hill resident Braxton Dauphin Cook, 31, was sentenced after he pled guilty in August for the charges.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Kristi K. DuBose imposed a sentence of 26 months incarceration. After his incarceration, Cook will serve three years on supervised release. During that time, Cook will undergo testing and treatment for substance abuse. The court did not impose a fine, but the judge ordered Cook to pay a $100 special assessment.

In connection with his guilty plea, Cook admitted on January 20, he burglarized a rural hunting camp in Arlington, and stole several firearms, cash, and an ATV.

On the same day of the burglary, law enforcement located Cook passed out in a pickup truck parked on the side of the road with the engine running. Investigators searched Cook’s person and found a loaded pistol that had been reported stolen from the hunting camp, syringe containing a liquid substance that Cook admitted was heroin.

Inside the truck, investigators found six additional firearms that were reported stolen from the hunting camp. Cook admitted he sold two firearms he stole from the hunting camp to a drug dealer and he planned on taking the other stolen items to another drug dealer.

Cook estimated that he used heroin twice a day and admitted that he had used methamphetamine since 2010. Cook’s knowing unlawful use of and addiction to controlled substances rendered his possession of firearms illegal.

The case was investigated by the Wilcox County Sheriff’s Office, Marengo County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It was prosecuted in the U.S. Attorney’s Office by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Roller.