Asheville Auto Repair Shop Owner Is Sentenced To 10 Years On Gun Charges

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced today Charles Lloyd Brown, III, 39, of Asheville, to 120 months in prison and five years of supervised release on gun charges, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Vincent C. Pallozzi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, and Chief David Zack of the Asheville Police Department join U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, on July 4, 2019, officers with the Asheville Police Department conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle Brown was driving. Over the course of the traffic stop, officers recovered narcotics from inside Brown’s vehicle, and located a firearm and additional narcotics Brown had discarded from his vehicle. On July 24, 2019, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Brown’s auto repair shop, Charlies Auto Care, located in Asheville. During that search, law enforcement recovered 28 firearms, seven of which were stolen, narcotics, and drug paraphernalia.

On December 23, 2019, Brown pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. 

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the ATF and the Asheville Police Department for their investigation of this case.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (SAUSA) Alexis Solheim, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville, prosecuted the case. Ms. Solheim is a state prosecutor with the office of the 30th Prosecutorial District, and was assigned by District Attorney Ashley Welch to serve as a SAUSA with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville.  Ms. Solheim is duly sworn in both state and federal courts.  The SAUSA position is a reflection of the partnership between the office of the 30th Prosecutorial District and the United States Attorney’s Office.