Man sentenced to one year in jail and two years of probation in plea deal after arrest for possession of a stolen firearm on the UF campus

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kenyata Malique McCoy, 21, has been sentenced to a year in the Alachua County Jail, followed by two years of probation, after entering a plea of nolo contendere to possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent; he was originally charged with possession of a firearm on a school campus and grand theft of a firearm.

McCoy was arrested on November 8, 2025, after a stolen firearm was found in the men’s restroom on the west side of the Broward Dining Facility on the UF campus. The gun had been stolen from an unoccupied vehicle in Gainesville in June 2020, and McCoy was arrested as a juvenile in July 2020 for possession of a stolen vehicle and for his involvement in a string of car burglaries.

At the time of the November arrest, McCoy was in a pre-trial diversion agreement following an April 2025 arrest for loitering/prowling and resisting an officer without violence. After the November 2025 arrest, the pre-trial diversion agreement was revoked, and in January 2026, McCoy entered a plea of nolo contendere to those charges. Judge Susan Miller-Jones withheld adjudication of guilt and fined him $326; he has made payments toward that fine.

On April 28, McCoy entered a plea of nolo contendere to possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent; the plea document states that the maximum sentence for the charge is 15 years in prison. As part of the plea agreement, the charge of grand theft of a firearm was not prosecuted. Judge James Colaw withheld adjudication of guilt and sentenced McCoy to 364 days in the Alachua County Jail, followed by two years of probation.