A 40-year-old Pierce County man was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for illegally possessing a cache of firearms, which were discovered by workers and authorities after he took his vehicle to a Fife auto-glass repair shop.
Brady Lee Eltz was arrested Oct. 4 after Fife police were called to the shop where employees reported observing firearms in the trunk of Eltz’s vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court records.
Authorities found three guns in the trunk, including a modified stolen rifle; two improvised explosive devices in a bag; hundreds of ammunition rounds; latex face masks; body armor; gun sights; and other firearm accessories, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Inside the shop’s bathroom, where Eltz had gone when police arrived, authorities discovered two firearms in a cabinet below the sink.
Eltz also was found in possession of GPS trackers, several knives and a voice-changing device. His vehicle, a Mazda 3, had bullet holes, charging papers said.
“This conduct is not only serious but alarming to read about and see,” U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said during Thursday’s sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s news release announcing the case’s resolution. “You possessed very dangerous weapons. It’s unclear what your motivation was.”
Federal court records painted a picture of a troubled man who was born in Enumclaw and struggled with an unstable adolescence, methamphetamine addiction and trauma, including the loss of loved ones. Eltz had been stabbed in the back during a 2001 Mardi Gras celebration riot in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood, court records show.
A sentencing memorandum filed in court by his public defender said Eltz became preoccupied with concerns about World War III and believed his possession of weapons offered protection to his family. It requested that he serve no new jail time and be allowed to undergo supervised substance abuse and mental health treatment.
“I truly do understand fully the error in my ways, and thinking,” Eltz said in a statement included in the memo, adding in a letter that he took full accountability and has since changed.
In their own sentencing memo, prosecutors noted that Eltz had a history of collecting weapons, fake credentials and disguises. In 2007 and 2012, he was found with a similar cache of armaments and equipment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Due to a federal conviction for unlawful possession of firearms in 2013 — in which he was sentenced to five years in prison — and other criminal convictions, Eltz was barred from possessing any guns, the office said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the most recent case, with assistance from the Fife Police and Pierce County Sheriff’s departments.
