A 29-year-old Newton man is being held without bond after deputies say they recovered a firearm and additional firearm parts during a search warrant carried out at a home on Old State Road. Jacob G. Hamrick now faces charges including firearm by a felon, along with possession, manufacture, and assembly of a weapon of mass destruction, and he is set to appear in court on Friday.
According to a Catawba County Sheriff's Office media release authored by Lieutenant Dane Hoyle, the agency's Criminal Investigations Division had been looking into alleged firearm offenses tied to Hamrick before the warrant was executed. The release states that Hamrick was taken into custody without incident and is being held at the Catawba County Sheriff's Office Detention Facility in Newton.
What the Mass Destruction Charge Actually Covers
The phrase weapon of mass destruction tends to conjure images of bombs or biological agents, but under North Carolina law it covers a much broader category of items. Under General Statute § 14-288.8(c), the term legally includes fully automatic firearms, sawed-off shotguns or rifles, firearm silencers, explosive devices, and conversion components designed to modify a firearm into an automatic weapon, as detailed by Dewey Brinkley Law. In practice, that statute is routinely applied to modified firearms, suppressors, sawed-off long guns, or conversion parts sometimes referred to as Glock switches or auto-sears, according to a Fox Carolina News explainer on the statute.
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office release does not specify exactly what the additional firearm parts recovered from the Old State Road residence were, leaving that detail unresolved for now. Manufacturing, assembling, or possessing a weapon of mass destruction under the same statute is classified as a Class F felony in North Carolina, carrying sentences that range from 13 to 25 months of intermediate punishment up to 49 months in active prison depending on a defendant's prior record, per the North Carolina General Assembly.
The Felon-in-Possession Count and Sentencing Exposure
Hamrick's firearm-by-a-felon charge falls under General Statute § 14-415.1, which makes possession of a firearm by a convicted felon a Class G felony. That charge carries a presumptive prison sentence between 10 and 31 months, with maximum penalties reaching 47 months for defendants with a high prior record level, according to the Hiltzheimer Law Office. Separately, a June 2021 Associated Press report noted that a 24-year-old Jacob Gherret Hamrick was arrested by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office in connection with a break-in at Blackburn Elementary School, an earlier brush with local law enforcement in the county.
North Carolina lawmakers have also recently sharpened penalties for defendants who combine gun and felony charges. Session Law 2025-71, which took effect in late 2025, established aggravated felony firearm offenses that elevate possession of a firearm by a felon to a Class F felony when it happens during the commission or attempted commission of another felony, according to the UNC School of Government.
Why the Tactical Team Was Called In
The search warrant on Old State Road was executed by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office STAR Team, a multi-agency tactical unit formed in 1997. Members complete at least 144 hours of specialized annual training to carry out high-risk search warrants and resolve critical incidents, according to Catawba County government records. The STAR Team frequently works alongside neighboring county tactical squads, drone units, and state agencies on high-risk warrants and barricade situations across the region, per the Burke County Sheriff's Office.
No Bond and What Comes Next
Hamrick's no-bond status traces back to North Carolina's Pretrial Integrity Act, codified under G.S. 15A-533 and 15A-534. That law strips magistrates of the authority to set bail for defendants facing certain serious felony charges, instead requiring a District or Superior Court judge to determine release conditions, the UNC School of Government explains. He is scheduled to appear in Catawba County District Court on Friday, with the detention facility in Newton, the county seat, serving as the standard holding site for defendants awaiting first appearances.
It also remains an open question whether federal prosecutors will step in. Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) allows federal authorities to adopt local felon-in-possession or illegal weapon modification cases, and such charges can carry federal prison sentences of up to 10 to 15 years without the possibility of state parole, according to Amburgey Law. Whether that happens here, and what specific prior felony conviction underlies Hamrick's status under the state's Felony Firearms Act, has not been disclosed.
The case adds to a string of recent Catawba County firearm prosecutions. Hoodline has covered a Lincolnton meth case and reported on a separate Newton drive-by suspect held without bond in recent weeks, both reflecting the same pattern of felony firearm holds now common under state pretrial law.
