A 21-year-old Boone County man has been sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison after investigators say he showed up on the grounds of Walton-Verona High School while addicted to drugs, carrying firearms that included an AR-15-style rifle, and triggered lockdowns at three area schools. Landen Strong was sentenced to 54 months behind bars after pleading guilty to illegally possessing firearms while addicted to controlled substances.
According to WKRC, Strong was on Walton-Verona High School grounds on Oct. 8, 2025, while addicted to drugs. Witnesses and school surveillance video showed a man matching his description on campus, and the man appeared to be concealing a weapon, prompting deputies to respond. The sighting set off lockdowns at three Boone County schools before deputies located Strong that same day.
Once deputies found him, the report notes, Strong told them he had wrapped firearms and drugs in clothing and hidden them in the woods. Deputies went on to recover an AR-15-style rifle, two handguns, marijuana and fentanyl. A search of his home turned up another firearm, ammunition, pills and drug paraphernalia, according to the same report.
Why He Was at the School
Court records cited in the report say Strong told authorities he had parked at the school because he felt safe while picking up a gun. Per federal prosecutors, Strong had bought a firearm from a friend after smoking marijuana. Prosecutors said he was addicted to fentanyl, and he admitted as much to investigators, the station's report states.
The Federal Charge Behind the Sentence
Federal law prohibits people who are unlawful users of or addicted to controlled substances from possessing firearms, a restriction spelled out in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), as described by the Congressional Research Service. That is the statute Strong pleaded guilty to violating. Separately, Kentucky law classifies unlawful possession of a weapon on school property as a Class D felony, according to the Kentucky General Assembly's statute.
A Department of Justice release on the case identifies the defendant by a different spelling of his first name, Landan, while the local broadcast report refers to him as Landen; the dossier does not resolve which spelling is correct. The case adds to a string of recent federal firearms prosecutions out of the Eastern District of Kentucky, including a separate Lexington case in which a 36-year-old man was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison on armed drug trafficking and illegal firearm possession charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The episode left three Boone County schools locked down for a stretch of the school day a year ago. Strong's sentence closes out a case that began when witnesses and school surveillance video showed a man matching his description near school grounds and ended with federal prison time for the drug-addicted gun owner.
