Bowling Green, KY – A federal grand jury in Bowling Green returned an indictment on May 10, 2023, charging a Campbellsville, Kentucky, man with methamphetamine trafficking and firearms offenses.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge R. Shawn Morrow of the ATF Louisville Field Division, and Chief Mitch Bailey of the Campbellsville Police Department made the announcement.
According to the indictment, on November 13, 2022, Nicholas Zunker, age 35, possessed with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Zunker also possessed an SCCY CPX-1, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, and an SCCY CPX-2, nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol. He was prohibited from possessing a firearm because he had previously been convicted of the following felony offense. On September 13, 2010, in San Joaquin Superior Court in California, he was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and battery on spouse/cohabitant/parent of child.
Zunker made his initial appearance last week before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case is being investigated by the ATF and the Campbellsville Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Yurchisin, of the U.S. Attorney’s Bowling Green branch office, is prosecuting the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
