Man Sentenced to 6 Months After Guilty Plea to Felony Carrying of Concealed Gun

NORFOLK, Va. — Akeem Jehovahs Tolson, 21, was sentenced to serve six months in jail after he pleaded guilty to second-offense carrying of a concealed firearm without a permit, a felony, following a 2023 traffic stop in which police found him with a gun tucked into his clothes less than one year after Mr. Tolson had been convicted of the same misdemeanor offense.

Around 1 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2023, Norfolk Police officers pulled over a car in which Mr. Tolson was a passenger after they suspected the driver to be under the influence. As the officers walked up to the car, they noticed Mr. Tolson removing a mask from his face and making movements that suggested that he was hiding something. When the officers identified the driver and each of the passengers, they ran their information and found that Mr. Tolson had an outstanding warrant for his arrest from a neighboring city.

The officers asked Mr. Tolson to step out of the car, Mr. Tolson was uncooperative, and he tried to pull on the car door to prevent it from being opened by the officers. The officers had to remove Mr. Tolson from the car to arrest him and, while they were checking Mr. Tolson for weapons subsequent to his arrest, they found a 9mm handgun with an extended magazine in his pants. Mr. Tolson did not have a concealed carry permit and had a prior misdemeanor conviction in Norfolk of carrying a concealed firearm from the year prior in 2022.

On April 23, 2025, Mr. Tolson pleaded guilty to felony second-offense carrying of a concealed weapon. In exchange for Mr. Tolson’s guilty plea, the Commonwealth agreed to the dismissal of another related misdemeanor charge. Judge Joseph C. Lindsey accepted Mr. Tolson’s plea agreement. There was no agreement to the sentence Mr. Tolson would receive, and his state sentencing guidelines recommended a period of probation with no active incarceration.

On June 13, Mr. Tolson’s defense counsel argued for the recommended probation-only sentence, while the Commonwealth deferred to the Court’s discretion, given that Mr. Tolson had just been convicted of the same behavior less than a year prior to the October 2023 offense. After hearing from both sides, Judge Lindsey went above the sentencing guidelines, sentenced Mr. Tolson to serve six months in jail, and suspended another four and a half years in prison on the conditions that Mr. Tolson be of uniform good for five years and complete three years of supervised probation following his release.

“Carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is a red flag for being either a future violent-crime victim or a future violent-crime defendant. That is why, when I took office, I implemented a policy of seeking convictions in all concealed-firearm cases, even though the Commonwealth offers Virginia prosecutors no resources to do so,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Virginia permits the open carrying of firearms without a permit. People need to obey this law, or, like Mr. Tolson, they will eventually be convicted of felonies, lose their right to carry a gun at all, and face the possibility of going to jail. My office and I will continue to hold accountable people who commit offenses that are likely to put them or others at risk of violence.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Victoria T. Vacarro prosecuted Mr. Tolson’s case, and Norfolk Police Officers Seth M. Williams and John C. Ball led the investigation.

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