Caleb Devine Hunt

Introduction

Caleb Devine Hunt is a 28-year-old man from Columbia, Missouri, who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 96 months in federal prison without parole for being a felon in possession of a firearm — and for illegally possessing a machine gun. The case against him started with a photograph: in November 2023, a Columbia Police Department detective saw a photo on Facebook of Hunt holding a black Glock pistol fitted with a laser and an extended magazine, recognized him as a convicted felon barred from having guns, and began the investigation that would connect that photograph to a pistol thrown from a car during a highway pursuit, fitted with a machine gun conversion device. Hunt’s record already carried a felony for his part in a 2019 shooting in downtown Columbia.

Background Information

Hunt was already known to Columbia police before the 2023 photograph: the announcement records a previous felony conviction for assault in the second degree for his participation in a 2019 shooting in downtown Columbia, which is what made him a prohibited person under federal firearms law. The detective who recognized him in the Facebook photo obtained a search warrant and located multiple images and videos of Hunt with the same black Glock — and was able to read the firearm’s serial number from the material. That serial number became the thread of the whole case: when a matching pistol surfaced months later, thrown from a fleeing vehicle, investigators could tie it back to the images with certainty. The announcement describes no occupation or other personal history, and this page does not guess at any.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Hunt was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison without parole for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for illegal possession of a machine gun.

On March 2, 2024, Hunt was a passenger in a vehicle pursued by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in Boone County. During the pursuit, troopers witnessed a small black object being thrown from the moving vehicle. The object was a black Glock pistol matching the serial number of the firearm Hunt possessed in the Facebook images — and it had a machine gun conversion device, commonly called a switch, on it. The announcement describes what the switch does: affixed to a Glock, it causes a single pull of the trigger to discharge rounds until the ammunition is exhausted, a malfunction occurs, or the trigger is released. On April 24, 2024, Columbia Police officers arrested Hunt for possession of the Glock and located three additional firearms in his possession. The combination — a prohibited felon, a pistol he had shown off online, and a conversion device that turns it into a machine gun — produced the federal prosecution and the eight-year sentence.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequence on the record is the sentence itself: 96 months in federal prison without parole, imposed by Judge Stephen R. Bough. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley S. Turner and investigated by the Columbia Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and it was brought under Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department’s violent-crime initiative, as part of its Operation Take Back America component. The announcement records no public statement from Hunt or defense counsel and no separate proceeding beyond the criminal case. The three additional firearms found on him at his April 2024 arrest remain part of the court record of the offense, alongside the switched Glock that was the case’s centerpiece.

Current Status

Hunt is serving the 96-month sentence imposed by Judge Stephen R. Bough for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for the illegal machine gun possession. The sentence was announced without parole, meaning the full eight years runs as custody. His conviction rests on the chain investigators built between the November 2023 Facebook images, the readable serial number, the March 2024 pursuit, and the April 2024 arrest with three more firearms. The announcement did not report an appeal or any post-sentencing motion, so the disposition stands as announced: convicted and sentenced, in federal custody.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 28, Hunt now has a second federal-scale conviction stacked on the 2019 second-degree assault felony — eight years without parole that will hold him in custody into his mid-thirties, on top of the state record that made him a prohibited person in the first place. The case also documents how the showing-off that once lived on social media became prosecutable evidence: the detective’s recognition of Hunt in the photograph, the serial number readable in his own images, and the matching pistol recovered from the pursuit formed the proof the eight-year sentence rests on. The switch on that pistol — the device that makes one trigger pull empty the magazine — is what moved the case from simple possession into machine gun territory and what the sentence length reflects.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri, "Columbia Man Sentenced to 8 Years for Being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm and for Illegal Possession of a Machine Gun," November 4, 2026. source