Coeur d’Alene man gets 46 months for unlawful gun possession

A Coeur d’Alene man with multiple felony convictions has been sentenced to 46 months in federal prison after a probation compliance check exposed more than a simple firearms violation. Shawn Allen Cline, 53, was barred from possessing guns, but officers found him in his garage holding a beer in one hand and a marijuana pipe in the other, deepening a case that had already tied local police, probation officers and federal agents to one Coeur d’Alene address.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Cline to serve three years of supervised release after prison. The sentence came after Cline’s December 2024 conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm, when he was placed on five years of supervised probation. The new federal case grew out of a later check by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department and Idaho Department of Correction Probation and Parole, showing how a supervision visit can quickly turn into a fresh prosecution when a defendant remains in possession of drugs or weapons.

The case also follows an earlier arrest at Cline’s home in the 1900 block of West Fairway Drive. On Dec. 20, 2025, the Coeur d’Alene Police Community Action Team and Idaho Probation and Parole arrested him after officers reported finding a pipe bomb, several firearms, methamphetamine and marijuana. That arrest put Cline’s home on the radar of multiple agencies and gave the later federal sentence added public-safety weight for Kootenai County residents who have watched the case unfold step by step.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho said the investigation involved the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, Idaho Department of Correction Probation and Parole, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It also credited the Spokane Bomb Squad, which decommissioned Cline’s pipe bomb. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Johnson prosecuted the case.

The sentence fits a broader federal enforcement push in Idaho. In a separate firearms announcement, the office said recent cases had produced 15 years in prison across four matters, reflecting an aggressive approach to repeat weapons offenses. In practice, the Cline case shows how a local probation check can reveal a wider mix of danger, from illegal guns to explosives and drugs, and why federal prosecutors are treating repeat firearm possession as a continuing public-safety threat in Coeur d’Alene.