By Thomas Geyer
Quad City Times
ROCK ISLAND, Ill.— A Rock Island man who spent 22 years in solitary confinement in the Illinois Department of Corrections was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm and being a felon in possession of ammunition.
According to U.S. District Court, Rock Island, electronic records, a federal jury found Anthony Tony Gay, 49, guilty of the two counts after a three-day trial in May of 2022.
At trial, federal prosecutors presented evidence that on May 31, 2020, a vehicle in which Gay was a passenger was stopped by Rock island Police for a traffic violation.
Gay fled from the traffic stop but fell as he was being chased by police. He was arrested a short distance away.
While retracing Gay’s path, officers found a loaded Glock Model 46 .45-caliber pistol near where he had fallen.
About two weeks later on June 14, 2020, Rock Island Police were sent to a Rock Island motel where Gay had been renting a room before he was arrested.
As motel workers were cleaning Gay’s room and removing his belongings, one of them located a bag of .45-caliber ammunition containing the same type of rounds that had been loaded into the Glock pistol.
Gay was on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections at the time he possessed the gun and ammunition.
Before he was sentenced, prosecutors noted Gay’s robbery conviction that involved him and several other gang members beating a 15-year-old boy who had been riding his bicycle, and that Gay had been released from prison the day before the incident.
During Gay’s sentencing hearing Wednesday, Judge James Shadid noted that Gay had a lengthy criminal record and violent history.
Gay will have to spend three years on supervised release after he completes his prison sentence.
On Aug. 26, 1994, Gay was arrested on one count of aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony that carries a prison sentence of two to five years, and one count of robbery, a Class 1 felony that carries a prison sentence of four to 15 years.
According to Rock Island County Circuit Court electronic records, the victim was badly beaten.
Gay pleaded guilty to the robbery charge on Oct. 20, 1994, and he was sentenced to serve four years on probation. However, four days later, a warrant was issued for Gay’s arrest for violating his probation. On Dec. 12, 1994, Gay was sentenced to serve seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Gay was sent to prison in 1994 when he was 20 years old for violating probation on a robbery charge. He was driving a car without a license and was on parole for a robbery in which he stole a hat and a $1 bill.
His original seven-year prison term was subsequently extended with additional sentences totaling 90 years for assaulting correctional officers, including throwing bodily fluids. A mistake in sentencing led to consecutive sentences for each of those 17 offenses committed between 1998 and 2001.
Gay was released from prison in 2018 after serving 24 years in prison, 22 of which were spent in solitary confinement in Illinois.
According to a Quad-City Times story filed May 20, 2022, Gay’s original seven-year prison term was subsequently extended with additional sentences totaling 90 years for assaulting correctional officers, including throwing bodily fluids. A mistake in sentencing led to consecutive sentences for each of those 17 offenses committed between 1998 and 2001.
Gay filed a federal lawsuit against current and former Illinois Department of Corrections officials; Wexford Health Sources, which provides medical and mental health care to IDOC inmates; and several wardens and assistant wardens at specific prisons where Gay was held for psychological damage suffered during solitary confinement and abuse from prison guards.
One of those cases is continuing its way through U.S. District Court, Rock Island. Others have been dismissed at the behest of Gay or a court ruling.
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