BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – A convicted felon was sentenced for illegally possessing a firearm, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Darrie Dewayne Ziegler, 32, of Birmingham, was sentenced to 92 months in prison after he plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in July 2025.
Darrie Dewayne Ziegler was sentenced for illegally possessing a firearm.(Shelby County Jail)
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, during the week of Aug. 6, 2024, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Birmingham Police Department received a tip from Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama about Ziegler possessing guns and selling drugs at a Birmingham motel.
On Aug. 15, 2024, ATF found Ziegler at the Budgetel Inn and Suites in Fairfield. Officers recovered from Ziegler’s hotel room:
- A Shadow Systems MR920 9mm pistol with a green dot sight
- An extended magazine
- Marijuana
- Ammunition
The pistol and several other guns had been reported stolen a week earlier from a vehicle in Tuscaloosa. The next day, hotel staff found a backpack in the laundry room which they turned over to law enforcement.
The ATF found Darrie Ziegler in a Fairfield motel and seized weapons.(ATF)
In the backpack, authorities found: a Glock 9mm pistol that had been converted to a machine gun using a machine gun conversion device, commonly referred to as a “Glock switch,”; two 50-round drum magazines; a regular magazine; 28 grams of methamphetamine; 6 grams of fentanyl; alprazolam; digital scales and cash.
At the time, Ziegler had one arrest warrant with the Irondale Police Department and nine arrest warrants with the Birmingham Police Department.
In 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ziegler was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama for being a felon in possession of a firearm. In 2019, he was sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release.
The ATF found Darrie Ziegler in a Fairfield motel and seized weapons. Later, drugs and scales were found in a backpack at the hotel.(ATF)
Ziegler was released from federal prison in January 2022. However, Ziegler violated his supervised release after he failed to report to his U.S. Probation Officer for four months after he was arrested for domestic violence assault.
His supervised release was revoked in 2023 and he served for 15 more months in federal prison for the revocation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“The details in this case are particularly alarming – a violent felon, armed with stolen firearms and a machinegun, and distributing narcotics at a local motel,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge James VanVliet. “This combination of criminal activity represents a huge concern for public safety. The ATF will continue to work together with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate and charge individuals such as Ziegler who make our neighborhoods unsafe.”
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