U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Lydon stated Friday that Jason Rivers, 30, of Lexington, pleaded guilty  in federal court in Columbia, to Felon in Possession of a Firearm.

U.S. Senior District Judge Cameron Currie, of Columbia, accepted the plea and will impose sentence after she has reviewed the pre-sentence report which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.

The evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing established that on January 29, Lexington County Sheriff’s Department deputies tracked Rivers to his residence in order to execute an arrest warrant on Rivers for Failure to Update his Residence as a Registered Sex Offender.

Upon entering the residence, deputies said they encountered Rivers at the door and immediately detained him. When Deputies first saw Rivers he was wearing a backpack and before deputies could detain him, Rivers attempted to throw the backpack into the residence. Deputies seized the backpack and searched it finding a loaded Ruger .380 caliber pistol. After Deputies detained Rivers, he admitted to owning the Ruger pistol.

Rivers is prohibited under federal law from possessing a firearm due to prior felony convictions for assault and battery of a high and aggravated Nature and committing a lewd act upon a child under 16.

Rivers faces a maximum possible penalty of 10 years, a fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.