KALAMAZOO, MI — A Kalamazoo man arrested last summer for allegedly threatening to kill people in a Facebook Live video is being charged in federal court on drug and weapons charges.
Jhontae Kaprice Jamison, 26, was arrested Jan. 28 by the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team after a controlled buy of crack cocaine by an undercover agent, according to a copy of Jamison’s warrant filed in federal court.
Related: Case dismissed against Kalamazoo man accused of making terrorist threats online
Jamison, who allegedly had sold to the agent on several occasions previously, was arraigned on 10 felony drugs and weapons counts in Kalamazoo County District Court on Feb. 1 as a result of his arrest. But those charges have since been dropped, as the federal drug case was filed in U.S. District Court.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge announced Thursday, Feb. 4, in a news release that Jamison has been detained, pending trial, on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Jamison, if convicted, could face up to 20 years in prison for the cocaine charge, up to 10 years for the felon in possession of a firearm charge and would receive a mandatory sentence of at least 5 years, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, Birge said.
After allegedly purchasing crack cocaine from Jamison on Jan. 28, KVET officers obtained a search warrant for him, according to court documents.
Prior to executing the warrant, officers located Jamison’s car at Davis Creek Apartments in Portage. Jamison eventually exited an apartment and when investigators attempted contact, he fled, striking the apartment building with his car in the process, court documents state.
Investigators tracked the car to a parking lot on Alvan Road in Kalamazoo. Upon seeing the unmarked KVET vehicle, Jamison ran, scaling a large metal fence topped with barbed wire. He was eventually arrested after officers pulled over the mother of Jamison’s child and found him in the car, according to court documents.
After being arrested, court documents state Jamison waived his Miranda rights and admitted to selling crack cocaine every now and then, and that he knew he could not legally possess a firearm as a felon.
Jamison, who was the victim of a July 31 shooting in Kalamazoo, was previously arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and using a computer to commit a crime from a hospital room on Aug. 1.
Jamison could be heard in the video, which was played at his preliminary hearing Nov. 10 in Kalamazoo District Court, calling out a group of people, swearing on his mother they “better not be outside” when he gets out of the hospital, and that if they dare to be, they better have poles — slang for guns, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“We’ll see if y’all (expletive) about that, because I’m about that,” he said. “You can’t (expletive) with me,” he said in the video.
When dismissing the charges in that case, Kalamazoo County District Judge Tiffany Ankley said there was a lot of innuendo used by Jamison.
“I don’t take that necessarily as a specific threat in terms, and I appreciate the charge doesn’t require a specific threat in terms, but it must express a warning of danger or harm and I don’t know that rises to that level at this point,” Ankley said.
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