Boyceville man charged with felony firearm possession

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  —  A 50-year-old Boyceville man has been charged with one felony count of being a felon in possession of a firearm for having a black powder pistol.

Louis Allen Cave made an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court June 14 before Judge James Peterson.

According to the criminal complaint, on May 19, Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin was on patrol in the village when Cave approached on an All Terrain Vehicle and indicated he wished to speak to the police chief.

Police Chief Lamkin activated his body camera as Cave pulled up behind the squad car, and the police chief observed that Cave was wearing a shoulder holster with what appeared to be a revolver.

Cave told Police Chief Lamkin he wanted to know when the Boyceville shooting range was open and said that he had recently purchased the black powder revolver.

Police Chief Lamkin searched the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access and confirmed Cave was a convicted felon, according to the complaint.

The police chief, along with another officer from the Boyceville Police Department, went to Cave’s residence on Railroad Avenue in Boyceville.

When asked where the black powder revolver was, Cave told them it was inside the house.

Police Chief Lamkin told Cave that he was not allowed to possess a firearm, and Cave said he had purchased it from a dealer who had told him that he could possess a black powder weapon.

Cave told the officers he would go inside and get the revolver, and Police Chief Lamkin followed him inside.

The defendant handed the weapon to the police chief, who asked if the revolver had been loaded.

Cave told the police chief that the cylinder in this particular revolver was empty, but that when he had talked to the Police Chief earlier, he’d had another black powder weapon in his pocket that had been loaded, according to the complaint.

Cave also retrieved the second weapon and gave it to the police chief.

A gun dealer in New Richmond had told him he could possess the black powder pistol, Cave said, but then Cave told the police chief that he had bought the revolver from “Rich, who can’t have a gun either,” because Rich owed him money, the complaint states.

According to the Wisconsin Consolidated Court Automated Program (CCAP), Cave was convicted of felony possession of methamphetamine in Dunn County on September 14, 2005, in connection with an incident on February 28, 2005.

A convicted felon in possession of a firearm is a Class G felony under Wisconsin statute 941.29.

According to the statute, a person is guilty of a Class G felony for possessing a firearm under a variety of conditions, including if that person has been convicted of a felony in Wisconsin; if he or she is convicted of a felony elsewhere that would be a felony in Wisconsin; he or she is an adjudicated delinquent for an act committed on or after April 21, 1994, that if committed by an adult would be felony; he or she has been found guilty of a felony by reason of mental disease or defect; the person has been found not guilty of or not responsible for a crime committed elsewhere that would be a felony in Wisconsin by reason of insanity, mental disease, defect or illness; the person has been ordered not to possess a firearm under one of several different Wisconsin statutes.

According to information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, federal law also prohibits a felon from possessing a firearm, although federal law does not prohibit a person from possessing or receiving an antique firearm, including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap or similar ignition system manufactured during or before 1898. The definition of antique includes any replica of an antique firearm if it has not been designed or redesigned for using rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition, or uses rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition no longer manufactured in the United States and which is not readily available through ordinary channels.

Cave was released from custody on a $300 signature bond on May 20.

He is scheduled for another hearing in Dunn County Circuit Court August 8.