OKLAHOMA CITY – A Comanche County resident who has a lengthy record of interaction with the Lawton Police Department was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to an offense stemming from a “road rage” incident on the H.E. Bailey Turnpike.
Nathan Ray Rollins, Jr., 29, of Lawton, was convicted of being in possession of a firearm after a prior felony conviction.
An affidavit filed by a federal investigator shows that the incident occurred December 11, 2019, on Interstate 44 (the turnpike), beginning in Comanche County and ending in Grady County. Rollins was the driver of a vehicle and his front-seat passenger was Martavious Arnez Gross, 24, who also has a history with Lawton police.
According to court records and proceedings, when Rollins and Gross believed they were cut off by another driver on the turnpike, Gross rolled down his window, yelled at the other driver and made obscene gestures. Rollins slowed down for a moment and then sped up to catch the other vehicle. When they caught up to the other vehicle, Gross brandished a firearm for the driver of the other vehicle to see, and then fired at the vehicle with a handgun.
Responding to a 9-1-1 call, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper located Rollins’ vehicle at mile marker 76 and clocked it at 106 miles per hour; the posted speed limit on the toll road is 75 mph. That trooper was joined by two others, and eventually they brought the vehicle to a stop at mile marker 81, at Chickasha.
After impounding the vehicle, the officers found an AR-15 rifle loaded with a high-capacity magazine, the .40-caliber handgun that was fired in the incident, two full-face masks, some marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Rollins and Gross were then arrested.
Rollins was charged on January 8 with possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, and on February 26 he pleaded guilty, admitting to unlawful possession of the AR-15 rifle.
Senior U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton sentenced Rollins on October 9 to serve 120 months in prison, the statutory maximum for the offense, followed by three years of supervised release. In imposing the sentence, Heaton said he not only considered the serious nature of Rollins’ crime but also his lengthy history of domestic violence. The judge concluded that a lengthy sentence was necessary to protect the public from Rollins’ escalating pattern of violent conduct.
Co-defendant Gross admitted he fired the handgun used in the “road rage” incident. He pleaded guilty in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court on March 10 to illegal possession of a firearm while subject to a domestic violence protective order issued in Comanche County on July 11, 2019. He is in custody and awaiting sentencing.
Rollins was arrested by Lawton police in 2014 for driving while his license was suspended, and for transporting a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle. He was given a six-month deferred sentence and fined $250.
Rollins was arrested in Lawton in 2015 for reckless conduct with a firearm. He was convicted and received a six-month suspended sentence, a $350 fine, $209 in court costs and a $240 DA’s supervision assessment.
Rollins was jailed in Lawton in September 2018 for misdemeanor assault and battery domestic abuse, and was arrested by Lawton police in March 2019 for domestic assault and battery by strangulation.
He pleaded guilty in Comanche County District Court to the assault and battery charges in September 2019. He received a three-year sentence, with six months to serve in the Comanche County Detention Center and the other two and one-half years suspended, plus a $1,000 fine, $103 in court costs, a $50 District Attorneys Council prosecution assessment, and was ordered to attend 52 weeks of domestic violence classes.
Rollins was arrested in Lawton in September 2018 for transporting a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle. He pleaded guilty a year later and received a six-month suspended sentence and was fined $300 plus court costs.
In March 2019 Rollins was arrested in Lawton for obstructing a police officer, threatening an act of violence, and trespassing. He pleaded guilty later that year and was fined, records indicate. Gross pleaded guilty in Comanche County District Court to a 2015 charge of assault and battery, a 2016 drug charge, and a 2017 charge of driving a motor vehicle in Lawton while under the influence of drugs. He also pleaded guilty in 2017 to two felony charges of false declaration of ownership, for which he received a five-year deferred prison sentence.
Court records also show that Gross was charged in Tillman County with two counts of assault and battery on an employee of the juvenile detention center at Manitou in 2014. The case was dismissed after Gross “completed the program” at the facility, court records reflect.