Deshawn Anthony Harris

Introduction

Deshawn Anthony Harris is a 21-year-old man from Columbia, Missouri, who was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 60 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for illegally possessing a machine gun. Harris admitted possessing a Glock-style machine gun conversion device in Boone County — the small attachment, commonly called a switch, that converts a semi-automatic pistol so a single trigger pull discharges rounds continuously. The device surfaced on April 4, 2025, when officers pulled a vehicle over in Columbia and found a firearm with the conversion device attached, loaded with a round in the chamber and 19 rounds in an extended magazine. Harris pleaded guilty to one count of illegally possessing a machine gun before the sentence was imposed.

Background Information

The announcement documents Harris’s offense and sentence but offers little personal history beyond his age, his city, and the April 2025 traffic stop — no occupation, no prior record, and no statement about how he came to possess the conversion device. What the case does document is the mechanics of the charge: a Glock-style pistol modified with a machine gun conversion device is treated in federal law as a machine gun, which is why possession of the small attachment alone carried a five-year federal sentence. The investigation belonged to the Columbia Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren E. Kummerer under Project Safe Neighborhoods and its Operation Take Back America component. This page does not guess at anything the announcement leaves unstated.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Harris pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun and was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

According to government filings, Harris was arrested after being pulled over in Columbia on April 4, 2025. During a search of the vehicle, officers located a firearm with a machine gun conversion device attached, which was loaded with a round in the chamber and 19 rounds in an extended magazine. The plea covered the device itself: Harris admitted he possessed a Glock-style machine gun conversion device in Boone County, the admission that established the offense. The loaded chamber and the extended magazine were part of the same finding — a pistol one trigger pull away from automatic fire, carried in a vehicle on a Columbia street. The guilty plea to one count of illegally possessing a machine gun resolved the case, and the five-year sentence followed from it.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequence on the record is the sentence: 60 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, imposed by Judge Stephen R. Bough on a defendant who was 21 years old when the device was found and 21 at sentencing. The case was prosecuted under Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department’s nationwide violent-crime initiative, as part of Operation Take Back America, and investigated jointly by the Columbia Police Department and the ATF. The announcement records no public statement from Harris or defense counsel and no separate proceeding beyond the criminal case. For Columbia, the case documents a traffic stop that turned up automatic-fire capability in a stopped vehicle — the specific enforcement picture behind the federal conversion-device prosecutions run in the district this year.

Current Status

Harris is serving the 60-month sentence imposed by Judge Stephen R. Bough, with the three-year supervised-release term to begin when custody ends. His guilty plea to one count of illegally possessing a machine gun is final, and the conviction rests on the April 4, 2025, traffic-stop search and the device found attached to the loaded pistol. The announcement did not report an appeal, a motion to reconsider, or any modification of the sentence, so the disposition stands as announced: pleaded, sentenced, and in federal custody. The release contains no further court dates and no conditions beyond the sentence itself and the supervised release that follows it.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 21, Harris enters federal custody for five years over a device small enough to fit in a pocket — the switch that converts a Glock-style pistol into a machine gun under federal law — and will leave at 26 into three years of supervised release with a machine gun conviction on his record. The case shows how the federal treatment of conversion devices now prices possession itself: no shooting, no injury, and no allegation of one are described in the announcement, yet the loaded pistol with the attached device and the 19-round magazine produced a five-year sentence. For Harris, the April 2025 traffic stop is the entire documented inflection point of the case — a vehicle search that ended with a federal felony conviction and half a decade of custody.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri, "Columbia Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Firearm Offense," November 4, 2026. source