Your neighbor died? No, you can’t pawn his gun

Nakoma J. Powell was sentenced this week to three years in prison after he broke into his dead neighbor’s home, stole a pistol and then took it to a pawn shop.

His neighbor, who lived at 1316 S. Colorado St. in Boise, died on Dec. 28, 2015. After the death investigation was completed, Powell, now 39, broke into the home and helped himself to a .40-caliber Beretta handgun and several other items, federal prosecutors said.

Powell took the gun to a Garden City pawn shop.

He was later arrested and charged in federal court with felony unlawful possession of a firearm. He was prohibited from owning or possessing firearms following a 2008 Ada County conviction for robbery and aiding and abetting burglary and he was still on probation for those crimes when he stole the gun.

Powell pleaded guilty to the charge in October.

On Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered Powell to begin serving his sentence on April 20, 2019. That’s when he’s eligible for parole in the 2008 robbery case.

He was sent to the Idaho State Correctional Center south of Boise to serve out the rest of that sentence. State prosecutors dismissed a related grand theft charge as part of the case moving to federal court.

If he isn’t placed on parole, the federal sentence would run concurrent to the state sentence. Without parole, Powell could be held in the state prison until April 2025.

CORRECTION: Though Powell was convicted of grand theft in March 2016 in state court, it was for a different incident, not this one.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Your neighbor died? No, you can’t pawn his gun."