MISSOULA — A Hamilton man was sentenced Thursday to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release on a firearms charge.
Andrew David Golie, 35, had pleaded guilty in December 2021 to being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson says the Golie admitted to illegally possessing a firearm after being found passed out in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle that was stopped at a Missoula intersection.
The government alleged in court documents that in October 2020, Golie was on state probation for a 2012 felony conviction of tampering with witnesses and informants.
On Oct. 1, 2020, at approximately 4 a.m., Missoula police officers found Golie passed out in the driver’s seat of a running car that was stopped at an intersection in Missoula. The officers smelled marijuana and saw an unholstered firearm on the passenger seat next to Golie.
The firearm, a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, had a round loaded in the chamber and additional rounds of ammunition in the magazine. Officers also located two backpacks in the front passenger seat that contained methamphetamine and syringes.
U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided over the sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI, FBI’s Montana Regional Violent Crime Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Missoula Police Department.
