A Durham man with a history of felony convictions is headed to federal prison for more than 13 years after deputies found two pistols inside his vehicle during a traffic stop last year. Frederick Lamont Mayo Jr., 37, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and was sentenced to 163 months behind bars plus three years of post-release supervision.
Federal prosecutors said the sentence, handed down in October, amounts to roughly 13 years and seven months in federal prison, according to CBS 17. The case stems from a traffic stop on September 5, 2025, when the Durham County Sheriff’s Office found two pistols inside Mayo’s vehicle, the station reported. He was taken into custody that same day.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Middle District of North Carolina office, Mayo was sentenced to 163 months imprisonment plus three years of post-release supervision. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District said Mayo will serve more than a decade in federal prison, per CBS 17’s reporting.
A Record of Prior Convictions
Federal prosecutors said Mayo has multiple past felony convictions, including a 2019 conviction in Johnston County for felony possession with intent to sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance as a habitual felon, CBS 17 reported. The station also noted that Mayo had previously possessed a firearm in 2024, and that he was found with the two guns in the September 2025 case after being released from custody.
The case was investigated by multiple local and federal agencies working together. The FBI’s Raleigh-Durham Safe Streets Task Force, the Durham Police Department and the Durham County Sheriff’s Office all took part in investigating the case, according to a separate Justice Department release describing that joint effort in Durham firearm cases.
Part of a Broader Sentencing Trend
Mayo’s sentence lands amid a broader climb in federal firearm sentencing nationally. The average sentence imposed for offenses under Section 922(g), the federal felon-in-possession statute, rose from 60 months in fiscal year 2021 to 72 months in fiscal year 2025, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The commission has also reported that among felon-in-possession offenders sentenced under the Guidelines Manual, 82.6% received sentences within the guideline range, per the commission’s quick-facts data on those cases.
Other recent North Carolina cases show a wide range of outcomes for similar charges. A Winston-Salem man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon, the Justice Department’s Middle District office announced in July. A Durham man received an eight-year sentence last year after pleading guilty to a firearm charge, while a felon-in-possession case in the state’s Western District resulted in a nine-year sentence, and another defendant was ordered to serve 20 months for a firearms offense plus an additional 12 months for violating supervised release, according to the Western District’s office.
