Malcolm Whiteside, a 30-year-old resident of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm as a felon. This decision was handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson after Whiteside was convicted on April 15, 2025, following a two-day jury trial. At the time of this offense, Whiteside was already under federal supervised release for a previous felon-in-possession conviction. Consequently, Judge Peterson revoked his supervision and added an additional sentence of one and a half years, resulting in a total imprisonment term of nine and a half years.
The incident leading to this conviction occurred on August 12, 2024. Whiteside led police on a high-speed chase through Madison before crashing into a semi-truck. He fled the scene on foot but was later found hiding in a garden shed at a nearby home improvement store parking lot. A loaded firearm was discovered beneath the driver’s floormat of the car he abandoned at the crash site. An analyst from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab confirmed that Whiteside’s DNA was present on multiple locations of the firearm.
The firearm involved had been modified with an illegal Machinegun Conversion Device which converts semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones. These devices are particularly hazardous due to their difficulty to control and capability to fire rapidly.
Further investigation revealed bags containing cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl inside the abandoned vehicle. Whiteside’s DNA was also found on the bag holding fentanyl.
Judge Peterson emphasized that Whiteside posed significant danger by possessing such weaponry given his criminal history involving prior firearms offenses.
The investigation that led to these charges involved several law enforcement agencies including the City of Monona Police Department, Madison Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol, and ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force. The case prosecution was handled by Acting United States Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma alongside Assistant United States Attorney Colleen Lennon.
This case forms part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), aimed at reducing violent crime through coordinated efforts between state and federal prosecutors along with various levels of law enforcement focusing particularly on gun crimes involving felons.
