Convicted Felon Sentenced to 27 Years for Violating Federal Firearms Law

A Marshall County man was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 27 years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm.

According to evidence presented at the jury trial and sentencing hearing, Charles Derryberry was the 46-year-old leader of a Mississippi-based street gang, the Nines. In February 2022, Derryberry committed a string of robberies and fired shots at one of his victims.

On Feb. 27, 2022, Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department deputies received information that Derryberry possessed a large quantity of narcotics. Deputies stopped the truck Derryberry was riding in and found a gun under Derryberry’s seat. At the time he illegally possessed a firearm, Derryberry had three or more felony convictions for crimes of violence or drug offenses and was subject to increased penalties under the Federal Armed Career Criminal Act.

Under the ACCA, Derryberry faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison. Evidence revealed that Derryberry actually had 17 prior felony convictions on the day he possessed the firearm.

On June 20, 2023, United States District Court Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced Derryberry to 327 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

“The defendant’s entire adult life has been spent committing an unending series of crimes, many of them violent,” remarked U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner. “The prosecutors and investigators, in this case, have made the public safer by ensuring that Derryberry is where he belongs – behind bars.”

The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Stringfellow and Julie Addison prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.