JACKSONVILLE, Fla — An Orange Park man arrested for his part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol now faces a separate charge that his pot-smoking made it illegal for him to own guns.
Adam Avery Honeycutt, 39, was indicted last week on a federal firearms charge that can carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The charge is that Honeycutt illegally owned guns, which FBI agents found in his home, despite a law that prohibits him owning them because he smokes marijuana, which agents also found in his home when they arrested him on misdemeanor charges involving the riot.
During a detention hearing on the two misdemeanor charges, whose maximum sentences total 18 months, a prosecutor told U.S. Magistrate Monte C. Richardson that agents found four handguns, three rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition. Honeycutt told agents they were all his, except one belonging to his father, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor said, adding that he also acknowledged the marijuana found in the home’s garage was his.
Taylor told the judge Honeycutt volunteered that he had been smoking pot since he was a young boy and that the day after agents arrived would have been his regular day to renew his supply.
The indictment cited a federal law banning gun ownership by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.”
The ban only applies if the gun has crossed state or national borders or was connected to interstate or foreign commerce. The indictment specifies three handguns – a Glock .45-cal., a Rossi .44-cal. and a Jennings .22-cal. – that it says fit that description.
The indictment also seeks to make Honeycutt forfeit the guns.
A court docket says Richardson issued an arrest warrant Feb. 18, but it doesn’t indicate anything happening since then. Two days earlier, Richardson had ordered Honeycutt jailed without bond until he could face a judge in Washington about charges involving conduct inside the Capitol when rioters delayed Congress certifying results of the presidential election.
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