A Bessemer man has been sentenced to 130 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Anna M. Manasco handed down the sentence to 40-year-old Timothy Shane Postell.
According to WBMA, the first incident happened on April 16, 2022, when a Leeds police officer responded to a retail store where Postell was reportedly carrying a loaded 9mm pistol. Postell and a woman with him were arrested for public intoxication, and a search of Postell turned up a stolen pair of tennis shoes along with narcotics, the station reports. Per court records, Postell was already prohibited from possessing firearms at the time.
The second case unfolded nearly four years later, on February 7, 2026, when a Hueytown police officer stopped a vehicle Postell was driving. WBMA's report states that Postell fled the stop while driving recklessly, then abandoned the vehicle at the end of a dirt road and ran on foot before officers caught up with him. Officers who arrested him found two loaded pistols in his jacket pockets, a detail drawn from his plea agreement, and a search of his vehicle turned up a loaded .22 rifle, body armor plates, methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia.
A Record Stretching Back Nearly Two Decades
Postell had four prior felony convictions between 2007 and 2021, including robbery, aggravated assault, cocaine possession, and burglary, the station's report notes. He ultimately pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in both the Leeds and Hueytown cases, consolidating years of separate police work into a single federal prosecution.
The Leeds Police Department, the Hueytown Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all investigated the case, per the same account from WBMA. Assistant U.S. Attorney Darius C. Greene prosecuted the matter, and U.S. Attorney Phillip W. Williams Jr. announced the sentence once it was handed down.
How the Sentence Compares
Judge Manasco sentenced Postell to 130 months in prison, a figure that is notably steeper than a comparable Birmingham-area case. Charles Frederick Austin Jr., 44, of Birmingham, was sentenced to 60 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm after pleading guilty in February, according to WBRC. Austin had incurred four felony convictions of his own between 2005 and 2021, the station reported.
Federal felon-in-possession cases like Postell's are common in the federal system. The United States Sentencing Commission reports that of the 66,662 cases it recorded in fiscal year 2025, 7,245 involved convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), the statute that makes it unlawful for prohibited persons, most often those with prior felony convictions, to ship, transport, possess, or receive a firearm or ammunition.
