KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knoxville man pleaded guilty Friday morning to a federal charge of lying about buying a pistol for an Austin-East High School student who ended up dead in a confrontation last year with Knoxville police.
U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Crytzer accepted Kelvon Foster's guilty plea to a single information count of making a false statement while buying a gun for Anthony Thompson Jr., 17, in April 2021.
Foster, 22, will be sentenced on June 30. A pre-sentence investigation will be conducted.
Foster is free while awaiting sentencing. He faces a possible maximum term of 10 years.
Foster bought a 9mm Glock pistol at the 17-year-old Thompson's direction on April 5, 2021, from Harvey's Pistol & Pawn on Clinton Plaza. Thompson wasn't old enough to buy it legally.
Foster filled out paperwork stating the gun was for him, which was a lie.
Foster had bought other guns for Thompson, court records show. In legal circles, it's known as a "straw purchase."
On April 12, a week after getting the gun, Knoxville police confronted Thompson in an A-E bathroom. Thompson had been in a scuffle with a girlfriend earlier in the day and the girl's mother had warned police Thompson carried a 9mm, an investigation showed.
A Knoxville officer spotted the pistol -- the one Foster had purchased for the teen -- in his front hoodie pocket. The pistol went off, with a bullet striking a nearby trash can.
A Knoxville Police Department officer fired his service weapon, killing Thompson and wounding a colleague.
In addition to the 9mm, Thompson had an ammunition magazine with him in the bathroom.
After Thompson's death, Foster was charged in federal court and in state court. This week he pleaded guilty in Knox County General Sessions Court to a misdemeanor charge of providing a gun to a juvenile for which he was placed on unsupervised release for a year.
In federal court, he faces a much more serious penalty.
In addition to a maximum 10-year term, he also faces up to a $250,000 fine, according to federal prosecutor Tracy Stone, who detailed agreed facts of the case for the court.
Foster was represented Thursday morning by attorneys Nakeisha C. Jackson and Ben Sharp.
Foster said nothing beyond answering a lengthy series of yes-no questions from Crytzer about his intent and understanding of his plea.
Before pleading guilty in front of Crytzer, Foster and his attorneys appeared for arraignment in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra C. Poplin.
