Leonard Craig Landt Jr.
Introduction
Leonard Craig Landt Jr. is a 39-year-old resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who was sentenced on November 2, 2026, to more than five years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm. Federal prosecutors said Landt, already a convicted felon following a 2015 robbery-conspiracy conviction in federal court, was found in possession of a Glock 19 pistol in September 2025, less than a year after his release from federal prison in that earlier case. He pleaded guilty on May 29, 2026, to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and Chief Judge C.J. Williams of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa imposed a sentence of 63 months’ imprisonment followed by a three-year term of supervised release.
The case was prosecuted in Cedar Rapids as part of Operation Take Back America, the Department of Justice initiative that marshals federal resources against violent crime, and Landt remained in the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending his transfer to a federal prison.
Background Information
Landt’s criminal history in the public record centers on his 2015 federal conviction for conspiracy to commit robbery. That conviction made him a prohibited person under federal firearms law, which bars anyone with a felony conviction from possessing firearms or ammunition at any point afterward.
He served a federal prison sentence for that offense and was released in the years before the conduct that produced the 2026 case. Prosecutors noted that the possession at issue came shortly after that release, a pattern that sentencing courts in firearms cases routinely treat as an aggravating feature because it shows the prohibition was violated almost immediately upon return to the community.
The investigation was worked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency responsible for firearms trafficking and prohibited-possession enforcement, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa C. Williams in the Northern District of Iowa.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Pleaded guilty and sentenced. Landt pleaded guilty on May 29, 2026, to possession of a firearm by a felon, a court-record admission of the possession itself. The charge and the 2015 conviction that underpins it are matters of federal court record, and the sentence was imposed on November 2, 2026.
According to the evidence presented in the case, Landt was found in possession of a Glock 19 pistol in September 2025. Because of his 2015 federal felony conviction, that possession was itself a federal crime, regardless of how the pistol was acquired or whether it was used in any other offense.
The charging document in the case was filed as case number 25-CR-0084 in the Northern District of Iowa. Landt pleaded guilty on May 29, 2026, admitting the possession, and the case moved to sentencing before Chief Judge Williams that fall.
At the November 2, 2026 sentencing, the court imposed 63 months’ imprisonment — five years and three months — together with a three-year term of supervised release to begin once the prison term ends. The announcement noted there is no parole in the federal system, meaning the imposed term will be served in full less only statutory good-time credit.
The release announcing the sentence framed the case within Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative described in the release as marshalling the department’s resources against violent crime and criminal organizations. Prohibited-possession prosecutions of this kind are a staple of that initiative’s district-level casework, pairing ATF investigation with federal prosecution of felons found with guns.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The immediate consequence was custodial: Landt was taken into United States Marshals Service custody and held pending transportation to a federal prison to begin serving the 63-month term.
The sentence also carried a supervised-release tail of three years, during which any new offense or supervision violation can return him to prison without a new conviction. For a defendant with an armed robbery conspiracy already on his federal record, a second federal firearms conviction compounds the sentencing exposure of any future contact with the criminal justice system.
Because the case ended in a plea and a sentence rather than a trial, there was no contested public litigation over the facts, and the announcement drew no public defense statement. The district announcement itself served as the primary public documentation of the conduct and the consequence.
Current Status
As of the sentencing announcement, Landt was being held in United States Marshals Service custody until he could be transported to a federal prison. He will serve the 63-month sentence, followed by three years of supervised release under the supervision of the federal probation system.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Landt now carries a second federal felony conviction, for firearms possession, on top of the 2015 robbery-conspiracy conviction. The practical effect is a prison term that runs past 2030, a further period of court supervision afterward, and a permanent prohibition on firearms possession that the new conviction itself enforces.
For the Cedar Rapids community, the case was presented by prosecutors as an example of the federal firearms enforcement pipeline: a released felon found with a gun, investigated by the ATF, and returned to federal prison within roughly a year of his release from the prior sentence.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa, “Felon Sent Back to Federal Prison for Illegally Possessing Gun,” November 3, 2026. source