DENVER – A man will spend more than 20 years in prison after he was found in illegal possession of drugs and two guns last summer.
40-year-old Miguel Antonio Garcia of Denver, was sentenced to 280 months, or 23.3 years in prison on Friday. After his prison term, Garcia will serve an additional five years on supervised release.
Court documents say on July 11th, 2018, an individual called 911 claiming Garcia, who was walking the streets of Denver with a backpack and a Bible, had asked him for a drink. The 911 caller claims he invited Garcia up to his apartment and gave him some water. Garcia then allegedly pulled a gun from inside his waistband, and another from inside a bible case.
Garcia left the apartment after the caller dialed 911. Minutes later, Garcia was found on the same block carrying a Bible, but without the backpack or the two guns.
Police later found the backpack under a nearby tree. Inside the backpack was a loaded 10mm semi-automatic handgun, a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun, approximately 360 grams of methamphetamine, two scales, and several empty plastic baggies as well as a motel room key sleeve that matched a motel key found in Garcia’s pocket and the back plate of a cellphone which matched the phone in Garcia’s pocket. The Bible had indentation marks on the cover and the case which matched the 10mm handgun.
On February 6 Garcia was found guilty of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a prohibited person, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
