United States of America v. Joe’Veon Penson Willis

Arkon, Ohio, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with one count of maintaining a drug premises (21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(1)) and two counts of aiding and abetting false statements during the purchase of a firearm (18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6), 924(a)(2)).


Joe’Veon Penson Willis operated a drug house with his half-brother. The government found out, raided the house, and arrested the brothers.


On Christmas Day, 2021, Joe’Veon Penson Willis and his half-brother, John Penson, started a Facebook Live video stream from their living room. With loud music playing, they described their drug business. This didn’t just put them on Santa’s naughty list—it also caught the federal government’s attention. So the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) got involved. And a few days later, agents from the ATF and the DEA executed a search warrant at the house. But they didn’t find milk and cookies. They found drugs and guns.

The agents focused on three areas. In Willis’s room, they found 425 grams of meth, 25 grams of a fentanyl mixture, one gram of fentanyl, a digital scale, a loaded Glock magazine, and eight rounds of loose ammunition. In his half-brother’s room, they found a loaded Glock 19 pistol with a large-capacity magazine, eight grams of a fentanyl mixture, 13 meth pills (six grams), and a blender with suspected drug residue. And in the shared spaces—the living room, sunroom, kitchen, and hallway closet—they found an RF-15 (AR-15 type) pistol, two large-capacity magazines, a 12-gauge shotgun, a gun box, 100 meth pills (44 grams), a digital scale with suspected drug residue, a clean digital scale, and loose ammunition.

Then the agents examined the guns. The ATF noticed that neither brother had purchased the Glock 19 or the RF-15, so they investigated the purchase history. They found that Willis had used a fraudulent buyer to purchase the firearms on his behalf. And on the brothers’ social media accounts, they found photos of Willis holding pistols that matched the Glock 19 and RF-15.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to