Hawkeye Reporter

A Waterloo man, Edward Earl Roby, Jr., has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. The sentencing took place on September 26, 2025, following Roby's guilty plea on May 13, 2025.

Roby, age 28, had previously pleaded guilty in December 2021 to being a felon in possession of a firearm after police discovered a gun in his car during a traffic stop in July 2021. He was released while awaiting sentencing for that charge.

In February 2022, before he was sentenced for the first offense, law enforcement found Roby in the backseat of a car suspected to be involved in a shooting incident. Officers responded to reports of shots fired from a red car early on February 6 and attempted to stop the vehicle. After it fled and was later stopped, officers found three occupants including Roby.

During their investigation along the chase route, officers recovered a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun inside a Crown Royal bag lying atop a snowbank. Six shell casings were also found near the scene. DNA testing confirmed that Roby's DNA was present on both the slide and grip of the weapon.

United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Roby to 57 months’ imprisonment and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. There is no parole available under federal law.

Roby had already received a sentence of 41 months’ imprisonment in July 2022 related to his earlier firearms possession case from July 2021. He remains in United States Marshal’s custody pending transfer to federal prison.

Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by members of a Federal Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), with assistance from Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.

The prosecution falls under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), an initiative aimed at reducing violent crime and gun violence through cooperation between law enforcement agencies and community organizations. The Department strengthened this program with new strategies launched on May 26, 2021 focused on trust-building within communities, supporting violence prevention groups, setting targeted enforcement priorities, and measuring outcomes.