18-year-old sentenced as youthful offender for firearm possession
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Odaris Wills, 18, was sentenced yesterday as a youthful offender to six months in jail and two years of probation for possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent under the age of 24 and possession of a concealed firearm without a permit.
Wills was arrested on May 27, 2023, when he was a passenger in a car that was stopped by a Gainesville Police Department officer for traffic violations. Based on the odor of marijuana coming from the car, the car was searched, and the passengers were asked to get out. A patdown of Wills produced a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun, which he said someone else had handed him before the traffic stop.
Wills has a juvenile criminal conviction for a charge that would be a felony for an adult, so he is not permitted to possess guns until he is 24, and people under the age of 21 are not permitted to carry concealed firearms.
Wills entered pleas of nolo contendere to both charges, which have a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, in exchange for 180 days in jail with credit for seven days served (the same sentence for each charge, served concurrently), 24 months of probation after he is released from jail, forfeiture of the gun, and $721 in fees and costs. The plea document notes that he is being sentenced as a youthful offender.
Well isn’t this just STUPID. 6 months, two years probation, sentenced as a youthful offender. Twenty years dropped to 6 months. He will not serve the entire six months either. I give him a year and he will be back in jail. Stop treating adults like a child who stole a dime from grandpas nightstand. The state attorneys office is constantly peeing on citizens of county and telling us it just raining.
Ah, Hey Democrats! We need more laws controlling firearms so incidences such as this wouldn’t happen…..ever! BullSi##!
Obviously the firearm made this exemplary individual a bad person man, boy, he/she!
Dems: Get your Attorney Generals to prosecute these people to the fullest, and your Judges to sentence them to the maximum allowed by the rule of law! Make their punishment so painful, they don’t want to do this a second time!
The firearm isn’t the problem! The problem is the criminal able to obtain a firearm so easily through illegal means (and yes, sometimes legal means)!
Get a grip Yosemite Sam. The firearm is the problem. They were all obtained through legal means at some point and now because of ammosexual republicans like you, it’s getting even easier to flood the streets with them. The new law in Florida makes it so that anybody can buy and carry without a permit, and the school to prison pipeline and stricter sentencing just makes soft criminals into hardened criminals with nothing left to lose. It’s not a solution. We have to address the underlying issue, and that is that there are way too many damn guns all over the place. They’re way too easy to come across. Get ‘em under control already.
The new law did not change anything about buying firearms, only carrying concealed firearms.
Facts are just a nuisance to people like Tom.
Your perspective is liberal insanity at it’s finest. Maybe after he’s served his probation you can take this poor, misunderstood boy into your home.
May as well keep the light on. Given his prior history, he’ll be back…or his parent(s) will be digging a hole for him.
Another child tax credit gone bad.
Will the Democrats EVER LEARN that wrist slapping like this does not work? Why would anyone see a six month sentence for a twenty year crime as a deterrent?
Because he’s 18, dummy. This is not a wrist slap. He gonna do time. 6 months in jail, plus 2 years probation, and a grand in fines is pretty harsh for a kid that young. I sure you’d love a good lynching, but it’s enough that they’ll be keeping close tabs on him for the foreseeable future.
This guy has been doing these crimes long before he turned 18.
This sentence is disgusting! He’s not allowed to possess a gun until he’s 24?! What a joke! Clearly when he turns 24 he will be a responsible gun owner…says NO ONE!