Federal crackdown in Twin Cities wins guilty plea from longtime gang member for having high-powered gun

A federal crackdown on street gangs in the Twin Cities has tallied another guilty plea, this one from a repeat felon who was caught last year in Brooklyn Center with a high-capacity gun, many rounds of ammunition and fentanyl.

James Edward Hollman, Jr., 32, admitted on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a gun related to drug trafficking. A law enforcement search of his Brooklyn Center apartment on N. 47th Avenue and his car on March 15, 2023, turned up the evidence.

The plea agreement recounted that after officers ordered Hollman out of the Dodge Charger he was renting, they seized from the vehicle a loaded pistol with an obliterated serial number, an inserted high-capacity magazine with an attached red laser pointer and a “switch” device that converts the weapon to a fully automatic machine gun.

Also collected from the car was a baggie containing 252 fentanyl pills and a loaded 50-round drum magazine. A search of the apartment turned up roughly $900.

Hollman, a member of the Highs gang in Minneapolis, remains jailed without bail ahead of sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.

The plea deal notes that federal guidelines call for Hollman to receive a prison term ranging from 9¾ to nearly 11 years. However, federal judges have full discretion when sentencing defendants and are not bound by the guidelines calculation.

Back in May 2022, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger pledged to devote the “entire weight” of his office to punishing violent criminals, part of an aggressive strategy he said was necessary to curb a surge in carjackings, shootings and gang activity in the Twin Cities.

The charges against Hollman spelled out many years of gang activity and his connections to various shootings in Minneapolis including when he was present at a drive-by shooting at West Broadway and N. Lyndale Avenue in September 2022, when nearly 100 rounds were fired.

On Jan. 1, 2023, he was at the scene of the fatal shooting of Deleon Davis, 28, of St. Paul, in the 4400 block of N. Lyndale Avenue, the charges said. Casings recovered in that incident matched the pistol seized from his vehicle in March 2023. A man was charged in that killing and was acquitted in a jury trial.

That same pistol was also tied to a shooting on Jan. 27, 2023, near N. 2nd and Washington avenues, the charges noted.

Court records in Minnesota show that Hollman at age 15 was convicted of first-degree assault in 2007 and illegal firearm possession 2019.