EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A Belleville, Illinois, man was sentenced earlier this week to nearly six years in federal prison for illegal possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois said a federal grand jury in East St. Louis indicted Nicholas Briddell, 33, in October 2021 on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Briddell pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2022.
According to court documents, the incident happened on March 6, 2021, near Visions UltraBar. Briddell admitted to leaning out of a passenger window of a car, with a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a handgun in the other. Briddell pointed the gun at people walking toward the nightclub.
East St. Louis police eventually stopped the vehicle, arrested Briddell, and found the gun under the seat where he’d been sitting. Police claim the gun was loaded, with a round in the chamber.
At the time of his arrest, Briddell had prior convictions for armed robbery and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Briddell to 71 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.