From The Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM — A 72-year-old man was sentenced to 46 months for firearms offenses in D.C. and Alabama on Friday, April 1.
Court documents state that Coffman traveled from Alabama to D.C. several days before January 6, 2021. He parked his red GMC Sierra pickup truck in the 300 block of First Street Southeast, less than half a mile away from the U.S. Capitol Building. A joint session of the U.S. Congress was scheduled to meet in the afternoon to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Coffman admitted in his plea agreement that he exited the pickup truck at 9:20 a.m. and walked in the direction of the U.S. Capitol Building and towards a rally near the National Mall. He also carried a loaded handgun and a loaded revolver as he walked around the area that day. Inside the pickup truck were several loaded firearms within arms reach of the driver’s seat, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun, and a cooler containing 11 mason jars filled with ignitable ingredients for Molotov cocktail incendiary weapons.
In addition, a search of Coffman’s residence in Alabama later that month led to the discovery of 12 additional mason jars containing ignitable substances, each constituting the component parts of Molotov cocktails.
Coffman did not have a license to carry a pistol in D.C. and had not registered any firearms or destructive devices in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by law.
Coffman had pleaded guilty on November 12, 2021, to two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm, a federal offense, regarding the component parts of Molotov cocktails discovered in his pickup truck in Washington, D.C., and at his residence in Alabama. Coffman also pleaded guilty to carrying a pistol without a license, a D.C. offense.
Coffman has been in custody since his arrest on January 6, 2021. Coffman will be placed on three years of supervised release following his prison term.