Mobile murder defendant gets 6 years in federal Glock switch case

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A man facing a murder charge will go to federal prison for six years for illegal possession of a so-called Glock switch in an unrelated case, a judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer ruled that Sidney Rashard Collins serve the prison term at the same time as any punishment he gets on state charges.

Collins, 21, of Mobile, pleaded guilty to the firearms violation in August. He admitted that he had a gun that had been modified to convert it into a fully automatic weapon. Mobile police arrested him on May 15 after an alleged altercation with a bouncer at a club on Dauphin Street.

That was exactly three months after a fatal shooting on Cheshire Drive that left 14-year-old Daniel Blackmon dead. During that incident, according to Mobile police, several people fired from a car that pulled in front of the house.

Police developed Collins as the last of six suspects in the case and charged him with the crime in June. A grand jury now will decide whether to indict on a murder charge.

The federal charge arises from the May 15 arrest. According to court records, Collins resisted the bouncer’s attempt to search him as he was trying to ender the club. A pair of Mobile police officers saw the exchange and then watched him jump the nearby gate, according to the criminal complaint in federal court.

Collins started running west on Dauphin Street and ignored several commands to stop, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit signed by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives states that Collins pulled a gun from his waistband and threw it into the intersection of Conception and Dauphin streets. Police determined that the gun was .40-caliber Glock pistol that had been converted with a Glock switch, or chip.