PHILADELPHIA, PA — A Philadelphia man was sentenced Tuesday to 12½ years in federal prison after separate juries convicted him of illegally possessing firearms in two cases stemming from encounters with law enforcement less than a year apart.
Arthur Thompson, 40, received a 150-month prison term and three years of supervised release from U.S. District Judge Karen Spencer Marston, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Thompson was convicted March 31 of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon in a case arising from a December 2022 traffic stop. A second federal jury convicted him April 10 of possession of a firearm by a felon in connection with an October 2023 arrest.
Federal prosecutors stated that Thompson had previously been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison and was therefore prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.
In the first case, court filings and evidence presented at trial showed that two Philadelphia police officers attempted to stop Thompson on Dec. 20, 2022, after observing a traffic violation. Prosecutors said Thompson stopped his vehicle, got out, discarded a loaded firearm and ran from the officers.
Police detained Thompson following a brief foot chase, and he was subsequently charged locally with firearms offenses, according to prosecutors. A federal grand jury indicted him in January 2025, followed by a superseding indictment in December.
The second case arose from an Oct. 18, 2023, operation by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force to locate Thompson while he was wanted on an active arrest warrant.
According to court filings and evidence presented at trial, investigators conducting surveillance on the 3000 block of North Percy Street saw Thompson and a woman they believed to be his girlfriend in a parked vehicle. Investigators followed the vehicle after it left the area and later provided its location and direction of travel to Philadelphia Police Department Highway Patrol officers.
Police stopped the vehicle after the female passenger had been dropped off, identified Thompson as the driver and arrested him on the outstanding warrant, prosecutors stated.
Task force investigators later obtained a search warrant for the vehicle and recovered a loaded 9mm handgun, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Gun Violence Task Force and Philadelphia Police Department investigated the cases. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert E. Eckert and Samantha A. Arena and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracie J. Gaydos prosecuted them.
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