A 25-year-old Levy County man with four earlier felony convictions has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon, after a sheriff's deputy who stopped him on an outstanding probation-violation warrant at a gas station found a fully loaded .45-calibre handgun on his hip, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida announced on Wednesday, November 4.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Florida

Peter Guiseppe Stefani, 25, of Levy County, entered the guilty plea to one count of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, U.S. Attorney John P. Heekin announced. The plea is a conviction: by pleading guilty, Stefani admitted the charge in federal court rather than taking the case to a jury trial, and the only major question left in the case is the sentence a federal judge will impose in January.

The July 9 gas-station stop

Court documents cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office state that on July 9, 2026, Stefani was stopped and detained by a Levy County Sheriff's deputy at a gas station because he had an active arrest warrant for a violation of probation. While the deputy was placing him under arrest on that warrant, the deputy located a fully loaded .45-calibre firearm on Stefani's hip. The gun was seized and Stefani was taken into custody.

That sequence — a warrant stop first, and the gun discovered during the arrest that followed — is the whole foundation of the federal case. Prosecutors did not allege in the announcement that the firearm was fired, pointed at anyone, or used in another crime on July 9; the federal charge rests on who Stefani is, what he was carrying, and the fact that federal law barred him from carrying it at all.

25Age of Peter Guiseppe Stefani of Levy County
4Earlier felony convictions prosecutors say barred him from possessing a firearm
.45Calibre of the fully loaded firearm found on his hip on July 9
15 yearsMaximum federal prison term he now faces
Jan 26, 2027Sentencing date, 11:30 a.m., Gainesville federal courthouse

Why possession alone is a federal crime here

Under long-standing federal law, a person who has been convicted of a felony is prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition, and a violation can be prosecuted in federal court even when the underlying arrest was made by a county deputy. Prosecutors said that before the July 9 offence, Stefani had been convicted of four other felony offences and therefore could not legally possess a firearm. The guilty plea resolves the possession charge itself; it does not, on the public record released so far, add charges about how he obtained the gun, and the U.S. Attorney's announcement did not describe the four earlier felonies in detail.

What a guilty plea changes — and what it does not

A guilty plea ends the fight over guilt: there will be no trial on the felon-in-possession count. It does not set the punishment. Sentencing is a separate hearing at which the judge weighs the facts, the defendant's record — here including four prior felonies and a probation-violation warrant — and the federal sentencing framework before imposing a term up to the 15-year maximum.

Who ran the case

The investigation was carried out jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Levy County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Assistant United States Attorney Adam Hapner is prosecuting the case. The announcement was made by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida — the federal prosecutorial district that covers Gainesville, Tallahassee and Pensacola and the rural counties around them, including Levy County on Florida's Gulf side, west of Gainesville.

Independent reporting of the same announcement by NewsWK in Pensacola on November 5 carried the same core facts — the July 9 gas-station stop, the active probation-violation warrant, the loaded .45-calibre handgun on Stefani's hip, the four prior felonies, the January 26, 2027 sentencing time and the 15-year maximum — matching the Justice Department release.

Source: NewsWK Pensacola

What happens next: sentencing on January 26

Sentencing is scheduled for January 26, 2027, at 11:30 a.m. at the United States Courthouse in Gainesville, before Chief United States District Judge Allen C. Winsor. Stefani faces a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment on the count to which he pleaded guilty. The actual sentence will be decided at that hearing; federal judges in such cases typically receive a presentence investigation report and hear from both the prosecution and the defence before ruling, and the term imposed can fall anywhere up to the statutory maximum.

For readers in Levy County and the Gainesville area, the case is a plain example of how a routine warrant arrest at a gas station can become a long federal prison case: the stop was for a probation violation, but the loaded firearm on a person with four felony convictions is what now carries the serious time. Awaaz Punjab will report the sentence when Judge Winsor imposes it on January 26.