A man who stole fifteen firearms from a house in Waterloo was sentenced on May 1, 2026, to eight years in federal prison.
Justin Michael Barnes, age 29, from Rock Island, Illinois, received the prison term after a November 20, 2025, guilty plea to possession of firearms by a felon and possession of stolen firearms.
Information from the plea and sentencing hearings in the case showed that Barnes was previously convicted of six felonies in Iowa state courts, including thefts, forgeries, and a gun offense. In June 2024, Barnes was on parole and there was a warrant for his arrest. That month, he and his then-girlfriend, Jena Wells, stole fifteen firearms from an unoccupied house in Waterloo. Wells acted as a lookout while Barnes stole the guns. They took the stolen guns to Wells’s home. Barnes then tried to sell the guns. During a traffic stop on June 10, 2024, Waterloo police officers located several of the stolen guns in Barnes’s backpack. During a subsequent interview with law enforcement officers, Barnes repeatedly lied about how and where he had acquired the guns.
Barnes was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Barnes was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Wells was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment on March 9, 2026.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
Barnes is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.
