SAN FRANCISCO — A city resident has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for having a gun in his car during a 2021 traffic stop in the Tenderloin neighborhood, a charge that was filed only after he was arrested in a 2022 police chase, court records show.
Demarco Ransom, 35, was sentenced in late February to four years in prison and three years supervised release, after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Federal prosecutors asked for 51 months and wrote in court filings they would have sought an even higher sentence but for Ransom’s “quick acceptance of responsibility” and pledge to leave the San Francisco area after he’s released.
After being arrested and released in September 2021 on suspicion of possessing the loaded pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition, Ransom was arrested in August 2022. In that incident, Ransom was only a passenger while the woman he was with allegedly rammed police cars and injured an officer, ran over police bicycles and only stopped after police used a spike strip. The car they were in was stolen from a San Leandro resident, police said at the time.
Despite his history of arrests, Ransom is “determined to turn things around this time,” his attorney wrote in court papers, adding that Ransom has battled “lifelong demons of drug addiction and longstanding homelessness his entire life, and has never enjoyed true stability or full sobriety since the time he was a young adult.” The defense court filings include a plea from Ransom’s 9-year-old daughter to the judge, to keep him out of jail.
“He makes me feel safe and happy,” the girl’s handwritten letter says. “Please let my dad come home so we can do all the fun things he promised me.”