The third of three men who stole nearly 100 firearms from Galesburg and Monmouth stores in 2019 was sentenced on Wednesday to over 5 years in federal prison.
31-year-old Keith L. Winters pleaded guilty to conspiring and stealing firearms among other charges, related to thefts from The Tac Shack in Monmouth and Farm King in Galesburg.
Winters, along with Miray Smith and Jeremy L. Howard, drove a stolen truck from Peoria.
Winters, already a felon, performed the burglaries while Howard and Smith acted as lookouts.
Smith and Howard have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 52 months and 46 months respectively.
At Smith’s sentencing hearing, United States District Judge Michael M. Mihm emphasized the dangerousness of the distribution of unlawful firearms on the streets, likening a stolen gun to a boulder rolling down a mountain that will inevitably crash into something and destroy lives.