Asheboro man sentenced in ammunition possession case

WINSTON-SALEM — An Asheboro man was sentenced last week to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to a firearm charge.

Musin Shaborr Roberts, 22, was sentenced to 108 months in prison plus three years supervised probation based on information from Randall Galyon, acting U.S. attorney of the Middle District of North Carolina.

According to court records, on June 30, 2023, an officer with the Greensboro Police Department saw people standing around a car in the parking lot of a Greensboro Housing Authority property. Aware of recent violent crime in the area as well as issues with trespassing on that property, the officer asked the parties to provide identifications to ensure no one was banned from the property.

Roberts provided police with an alternate name when asked to identify himself.

The officer was eventually able to identify Roberts and learned that Roberts had active warrants for arrest. Roberts was arrested and the Greensboro officer found a round of 9mm ammunition in his left front pants pocket, the report said.

The outstanding arrest warrant related to an incident which was the basis for a sentencing enhancement last week. The Court found, after an evidentiary hearing, that Roberts and four to six other individuals went to a party in Asheboro on June 24, 2023, wearing ski masks and long-sleeved jackets and opened fire on the partygoers, striking four men, one in the back of the head.

The Court characterized it as “a planned, coordinated, cold-blooded attack.” Charges against Roberts in Randolph County relating to that incident are pending, the court records show.

At the time of his arrest in Greensboro, Roberts had been previously convicted of felony possession of a stolen firearm (Randolph County, 2022) and was sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment exceeding one year. Thus, at the time of the instant offense, Roberts was legally prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.

Roberts pleaded guilty on June 5, 2024, to one count of felon in possession of ammunition.

The case was investigated by the Asheboro Police Department, the Greensboro Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by MDNC Special Assistant United States Attorney Mary Ann Courtney.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make neighborhoods safer.