Sioux City man sentenced to 6 years in federal prison for second illegal firearm possession (DOJ)

Yoni Duenas, age 28, from Sioux City, was sentenced on July 23, 2026, to 6 years in federal prison after an April 7, 2026, guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a felon and drug user.

On January 2, 2026, just before midnight, a Lyon County Sheriff's Deputy initiated a traffic stop for an equipment violation on a vehicle being driven by Duenas. Duenas was impaired, even losing consciousness during field sobriety tests. Inside the car, there was an overpowering odor of marijuana, a female passenger, a 4-year-old child, a 1-year-old child, marijuana, methamphetamine, and a loaded handgun.

Duenas' criminal history includes three state convictions for possession of controlled substances - methamphetamine, and five criminal use or possession of a firearm offenses including a pervious federal felony conviction where defendant possessed multiple firearms on different occasions.

After serving his first federal sentence, Duenas was required to serve a federal term of supervise release. He failed that term of supervision, was revoked, and sent back to federal prison three times. Just 38 days after completing that federal sentence, Duenas had rearmed and was arrested by the Lyon County Sherriff's Office.

Duenas was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand to 72 months' imprisonment. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Duenas is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was investigated by Lyon County, Iowa Sheriff's Department and the United States Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF). This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case file number is 26-04007.

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