Smith County Man Sentenced for Firearms Violations

TYLER – A Tyler man has been sentenced to federal prison for firearms violations. Heon Jong Yoo, 25, also known as Hank Yoo, was found guilty last November of seven counts of false statements made in connection with firearms transactions and one count of unlawful possession by a prohibited person. On Tuesday, Yoo was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III. Yoo was ordered to surrender to immigration officials for deportation after serving his sentence. Federal prosecutors say Yoo, a lawful permanent resident from South Korea, was an undergraduate student at the University of Texas-Tyler, when he falsely represented that he was a United States citizen in connection to seven different firearms transactions. Some of them involved semiautomatic weapons.

He did so after having been involuntarily committed to a mental institution in New Jersey in 2013 and again in 2015. At the time of his arrest, Yoo was in possession of multiple firearms, ammunition, and firearms accessories. He was initially indicted by a federal grand jury on Apr. 18, 2018. A superseding indictment was returned against him just over 5 months later.