Six-Time Felon Who Threatened Metro Bus Passenger with a Gun and Caught with a Switch Sentenced to Nearly 10 Years in Prison

MINNEAPOLIS - Clenest Demon Wells Jr, age 28, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court to 116 months imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release for illegally possessing firearms as a felon and possessing a machinegun, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

"Minneapolis belongs to the families who ride the bus to work, the parents who take their children to school, and the residents who build this community, not to felons who terrorize it," said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. "Wells is a six-time felon armed with guns and a switch who threatened an innocent passenger on a Minneapolis bus. He is now going to federal prison for nearly a decade."

According to court documents, a federal jury convicted Wells proceeded to trial and a federal jury found him guilty on all four counts. Evidence presented at trial proved that on three separate occasions between 2020 and 2023 law enforcement caught Wells illegally carrying firearms.

On April 6, 2020, law enforcement officers responded to reports of a passenger wearing a black vest and grey winter hat on a Metro Transit bus in Minneapolis threatening another passenger with a firearm. Law enforcement officers located and boarded the Metro Transit bus at the intersection of Penn and Lowry Avenue North, identified a passenger who closely fit the description, and conducted a pat-down search. The passenger was later identified as Wells, who was found in possession of a black HiPoint 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.

On May 23, 2022, Minneapolis Police Department officers on patrol observed a Pontiac G6 speeding through a residential area and conducted a traffic stop. Wells was the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle. Officers searched the car and found Wells in possession of a black Springfield Model XD9 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.

On July 30, 2023, Wells fled from law enforcement in a busy entertainment district of downtown Minneapolis while he possessed a loaded machinegun, an extended firearm magazine, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Wells' Glock pistol was equipped with a "switch" conversion device that enabled the firearm to fire in fully automatic mode. The gun was capable of firing 10 rounds of ammunition in well under a second.

Prior to 2020, Wells has been convicted of six felonies, so he was prohibited from possessing firearms. His prior convictions include multiple felony assault convictions for attacking and throwing bodily fluids at law enforcement officers while in jail.

Wells was sentenced today in U.S. District Court before Judge Donovan W. Frank to 116 months imprisonment. When handing down his sentence Judge Frank noted, "The amount of gun violence we are having in Minnesota is just off the charts."

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Minneapolis Police Department, the Metro Transit Police Department, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys David B. Green and Syngen Kanassatega prosecuted the case.