FORT WAYNE, IN (WTVB) – An incident in Kinderhook Township in August of 2019 has led to a Fremont, Indiana man getting a 10 year federal prison sentence.
According to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern Indiana, 40-year-old Markus W. DeGraw was sentenced before United States District Court Judge Holly A. Brady in Fort Wayne after he entered a guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
After DeGraw serves his time in prison, he will be under two years of supervised release.
DeGraw was a convicted felon when according to case documents, he sent text messages to his estranged wife who was living in Branch County on the evening of August 27, 2019.
Authorities say DeGraw was upset because he believed that his wife had taken his firearms. When his wife denied the accusation, DeGraw sent his wife multiple text messages in which he threatened to shoot and kill her. DeGraw also sent his wife a threatening message with a photograph of a handgun.
DeGraw went to his wife’s residence the following morning where he pointed a firearm at his wife and told her he was going to kill her. DeGraw left before police arrived.
Officers got a search warrant for DeGraw’s home where they found a loaded .40 caliber handgun along with ammunition of various calibers inside of the garage. After his arrest, DeGraw admitted that he had possessed the handgun for a couple of years, and that he had obtained it about six months after his release from prison on state convictions in 2016. DeGraw admitted to sending the threatening text messages to his wife the night before in order to scare her.
The Branch County Sheriff’s Department and the Michigan State Police were involved in the investigation along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Fremont Police Department and the Indiana State Police. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah E. Nokes.
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