Clenest Demon Wells Jr., 28, was sentenced to 116 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for illegally possessing firearms as a felon and possessing a machine gun. The sentence was handed down in U.S. District Court, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.
“Minneapolis belongs to the families who ride the bus to work, the parents who take their children to school, and the residents who build this community, not to felons who terrorize it,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. “Wells is a six-time felon armed with guns and a switch who threatened an innocent passenger on a Minneapolis bus. He is now going to federal prison for nearly a decade.”
A federal jury found Wells guilty on all four counts after trial evidence showed that law enforcement officers caught him illegally carrying firearms on three occasions between 2020 and 2023.
On April 6, 2020, officers responded to reports of a man threatening another passenger with a firearm on a Metro Transit bus in Minneapolis. Officers boarded the bus at Penn and Lowry Avenue North, identified Wells based on witness descriptions, and found him carrying a black HiPoint 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.
On May 23, 2022, Minneapolis police stopped Wells for speeding through a residential area while driving alone in a Pontiac G6. A search led officers to recover a black Springfield Model XD9 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol from his possession.
The third incident occurred on July 30, 2023, when Wells fled from law enforcement in downtown Minneapolis’s entertainment district while carrying methamphetamine, cocaine, and a loaded Glock pistol equipped with an illegal “switch” conversion device that enabled fully automatic fire using an extended magazine.
Prior to these incidents, Wells had been convicted of six felonies—including multiple assaults involving attacks on law enforcement officers—which prohibited him from possessing firearms.
U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Wells and remarked during sentencing: “The amount of gun violence we are having in Minnesota is just off the charts.”
The case resulted from investigations by the FBI; Minneapolis Police Department; Metro Transit Police Department; Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys David B. Green and Syngen Kanassatega prosecuted the case.
