Repeat offender Sparks, Aurora, gets 15 years for illegal possession of a firearm following chase

An Aurora man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm. Milton Warren Sparks Jr., 39, was sentenced by United States District Judge Douglass Harpool on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Sparks pleaded guilty to the charges on April 15. As part of the plea agreement, a third charge of illegally possessing a firearm was dismissed.
First weapons charge
According to information found in court documents, on March 1, 2017, Springfield Police officers received a tip about an unusual level of traffic coming from a second-floor room at a hotel, consistent with drug activity. Police went to the hotel, knocked on the door and spoke with a woman who exited the room.
While the police were speaking with the woman, Sparks jumped out the window from the room, but landed near two police officers who detained him. A search of the room produced a Llama-brand .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. An image found on a phone seized during the raid showed Sparks holding the gun. Eight months later, an ATF agent determined the gun had traveled in interstate commerce in Missouri, giving the federal government jurisdiction in the case.
Second weapons charge
On Dec. 20, 2017, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper and a member of the Bolivar Police Department attempted to pull Sparks over while he was driving a white Dodge Challenger on Highway 13 following a report of a possibly stolen vehicle. Sparks fled from the law enforcement officers, traveling as fast as 128 miles per hour. At one point, he cut off a dump truck while changing lanes; the trooper noted that Sparks’s right rear tire was flat and eventually exploded, but Sparks continued to travel at 100 miles per hour.
A tire deflation device was deployed, which the Challenger hit, but even as the vehicle’s tires disintegrated, Sparks continued to travel at 90 miles per hour.
Sparks then entered Springfield and ran numerous red lights. He eventually abandoned the Challenger and ran between houses. Two Springfield K-9 officers located Sparks 15 minutes later while he was hiding under a porch and took him into custody.
Later that day, a Ruger P94 9-mm handgun was located on the side of Highway 13; it contained a magazine with 15 rounds of ammunition. The trooper who pursued Sparks checked his video footage of the pursuit and found the gun “flew” out of the passenger-side window of the Challenger Sparks was driving at the point where it was found. It was also determined that the gun met the definition of a federal firearm and would have had to have travelled through interstate commerce to reach Missouri.
Sparks’s past convictions
According to information found in the plea agreement, Sparks has prior convictions for second-degree assault in Lawrence County from a 2004 case, second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer in Barry County from a 2003 case, and involuntary manslaughter in Clay County from a 2011 case. As a convicted felon, Sparks was prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law.
Additional sentencing recommendations
Sparks was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison on each weapons charge, to run consecutively. His sentence will run concurrently with a 10-year prison sentence he was given after being convicted for possession of a controlled substance in Lawrence County in 2015. As part of his sentence, he has been recommended for participation in a 500-hour residential substance abuse program (According to online records, Sparks was originally given a suspended execution of a 10-year sentence and five years of probation after pleading guilty in 2016, but had his probation revoked and was given a 10-year prison sentence in 2019 after violating the terms of his probation).
As of press time, Sparks remained in the custody of the Greene County Jail, where he has been held since Oct. 30, 2018.