Breckenridge man sentenced to eight years on gun charges

A Breckenridge man was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison on firearm charges after a plea deal on Friday, Aug. 24, county officials said. Prior to this, the man has been a convicted felon and has a litany of incidences on his rap sheet.

Bryce Clair Clark, 31, was convicted of federal firearms charges. Clark, a convicted felon from Kansas, has a rather extensive criminal history including assault, burglary and drugs among other offenses. Since his relocation from Kansas to Breckenridge he has been the target of law enforcement intelligence and calls for service that led to his arrest.

His arrest in Stephens County occurred in August 2017. He was operating a vehicle while in possession of a handgun. This was a violation of both federal and state law due to the fact he was a convicted felon.

After his arrest, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office received some intelligence indicating he had multiple stashes of firearms and ammunition. He was attempting to increase his cache through illegal means.

The sheriff’s office contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco as well as a K-9 unit that sought out firearms, ammunition and other components used in building firearms or for ammunition.

The ATF handler for the K-9 unit alerted officials to Clark’s toolbox at work. This allowed enough information for the sheriff’s office to obtain a warrant for the toolbox.

The sheriff’s office seized the following weapons from the toolbox: a sawed-off shotgun, that was in violation of minimum length standards, a .22 rifle, a revolver, AK-47-style rifle, along with six 30-round magazines for the AK-47 and approximately 1,000 rounds of various ammunition. The second location of stocked weapons was at Clark’s residence. The sheriff’s office seized a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, a .243 rifle, an AR-15-style rifle, a 9mm rifle, along with more ammunition.

The Stephens County Sheriffs Office decided to work with the ATF for a couple reasons. In a lot of state cases, regardless of the crime, only a minimal amount of time would be served if incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Sometimes as little as one-twentieth of the sentence would be served. With this being a federal case, however, he would be mandated to serve a minimum of 85 percent of the sentence.

Stephens County Sheriff Will Holt also wanted to send a clear message to the Stephens County community, particularly habitual offenders who get involved with firearms, the departments will use both state and federal agencies at its disposal to prevent the community from being subjugated to this deviant criminal behavior, a press release from the sheriff’s office stated. These criminals need to be made aware that it will no longer be only local law enforcement watching, investigating and arresting them.

Clark was sentenced to a little over eight years and will be on federal probation for three years after his release from prison. The maximum sentence in this case is 10 years.

“I am pleased with the lengthy sentence issued by the federal court,” Holt said.

Clark has filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.