Waterloo man sentenced for making machine guns at home

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - A federal district Cedar Rapids judge has sentenced a man to prison accused of manufacturing machine guns in his home.

Nicholas Wilson, age 35, from Waterloo, was sentenced on Thursday. He entered a guilty plea to a possession of machine guns in January.

A press release from the U.S. Department of Justice says he created three fully-automatic machine guns out of semiautomatic guns.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives investigated Wilson after learning the firearms he purchased were recovered in a criminal investigation.

Agents searched his home in July last year and found three machine guns and firearm conversion devices, including a drop-in auto sear, at the house.

Wilson then reportedly lied about having the firearms.

A judge sentenced Wilson to one year and one day in prison and fined him $5,000. Wilson will have to serve three years of supervised release after he is released from prison.