INDIANAPOLIS — A 25-year-old Indianapolis resident was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm during a jury trial in May.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, Kyree Bryce Harris was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, as well as five years of probation and a $200 fine after he was found guilty.

Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were called to a church on the near north side on June 17, 2022 on a report of a suspicious vehicle being parked there all night. The release said that when officers arrived, they found Harris asleep in the vehicle with a handgun which was previously reported stolen tucked between the driver’s seat and the center console.

Harris was a convicted felon, the release said, which prevented him from possessing a firearm. This comes after Harris was convicted of six armed robberies from stores in Indianapolis in January 2017.

“Armed career criminals like this defendant fuel the gun violence plaguing too many of our neighborhoods,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Zachary A. Myers said in the release. “Six prior convictions for armed robbery were not enough to disarm this criminal, but the serious sentence imposed here will protect the public from the danger he poses. I commend the officers who intervened and helped ensure that this defendant was held accountable for his actions.”