Palmetto man headed to prison after police find machine gun, records show
A Palmetto man is headed back to prison after police said they found a modified handgun capable of automatic fire inside a parked car in downtown Bradenton.
A Manatee County jury convicted Jibri Terrell Arrington, 33, on Thursday of possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon following a one-day trial before Circuit Judge D. Ryan Felix, court records show.
Felix sentenced Arrington to 15 years in state prison, including a three-year mandatory minimum, court records show.
Assistant Public Defender Shimeki Wright, who represented Arrington at trial, acknowledged the jury’s guilty verdict and said her office “properly preserved Mr. Arrington’s constitutional rights at every stage of the case.”
Bradenton police find modified gun, report says
The case began Dec. 15, 2024, when a Bradenton police officer responded to a report of an improperly parked vehicle in the 300 block of 13th Street West, according to an arrest report. The officer spotted a firearm and a large drum-style magazine in plain view on the passenger floorboard, the report said.
Investigators said they later determined the weapon was a Glock 19 handgun loaded with a 50-round drum magazine and equipped with a conversion device known as a “switch,” which allows a semi-automatic pistol to fire fully automatic rounds and classifies the weapon as a machine gun under Florida law.
Testing conducted the following day confirmed the conversion device successfully allowed the handgun to operate in fully automatic mode, according to police.
The vehicle’s owner denied owning the gun, according to an arrest report. But further investigation identified Arrington, who was a passenger in the car, as the weapon’s owner, police said.
DNA linked suspect to illegal gun, prosecutors say
Prosecutors also presented DNA evidence linking Arrington to multiple parts of the firearm, including the grip and the conversion device, according to court records.
Arrington was arrested in August 2025 following an investigation involving the Bradenton Police Department’s Crime Reduction Team, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Violent Crimes Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to BPD.
Sarasota County court records show Arrington was convicted in 2008 of first-degree murder for a crime committed when he was a juvenile during a robbery that ended in a fatal shooting. He was released from prison in 2023 and was on probation at the time of his arrest in this case.
In addition to his prison sentence, Arrington was ordered to submit a DNA sample and pay more than $800 in fines, court costs and investigative fees.
Arrington received credit for time already served and has 30 days to appeal his conviction.
