A domestic violence call in McAllen early this year led to the arrest of a man accused of assaulting a pregnant person in addition to the discovery of several illegal drugs and firearms, the latter of which has now landed that suspect with nearly five years in federal prison.
Juan Manuel Teran Jr., 37, also known as “El Blunt,” was sentenced to 57 months in and three years of supervised release for possessing the firearms as a felon.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane handed down the sentence and “adopted findings that Teran was trafficking in narcotics at the time that he possessed the firearms,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Southern District of Texas news release.
Teran, who pleaded guilty to the charge on June 22, was arrested in January for assault on a pregnant person and was found with meth, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, Alprazolam and Clonazepam in addition to two firearms.
It’s illegal for Teran — who was prosecuted as part of Operation: Knock Down, a joint effort between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the USAO targeting armed and violent offenders in the Rio Grande Valley — to be in possession of firearms or ammunition as a convicted felon.
“At the hearing, the court heard additional information about Teran’s history of robbery, repeated assaults on women and felony drug possession,” the USAO said in a news release, adding that Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert L. Guerra Jr. prosecuted the case.
As far as his state charges tied to the assault on a pregnant person, Teran was indicted by a Hidalgo County grand jury during the spring and his arraignment has been postponed until December.
