Cedar Rapids Man Who Shot Another Person During a Failed Drug Deal Sentenced to Prison

A man who shot another person during a failed drug deal was sentenced today to 18 years in federal prison.

Seth John Lee McGraw, age 25, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an April 3, 2025 guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm.

On August 24, 2024, McGraw met with an individual in Cedar Rapids to sell marijuana. The deal did not go according to plan, and McGraw ultimately pulled out a firearm and fired multiple shots at the individual, striking that individual twice. Law enforcement officers searched McGraw's apartment later that same day and located multiple firearms and drugs. One of the firearms that officers located at McGraw's apartment was a short-barreled rifle that was not properly registered to McGraw.

McGraw was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. McGraw was sentenced to 216 months' imprisonment. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

McGraw is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

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.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline) a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam J. Vander Stoep and was investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 25-CR-7.

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