26 months for armed felon found in stolen car after license plate reader alerted San Francisco police
A wanted felon armed with two loaded guns, who was found after a license plate reader alerted San Francisco police to a car involved in auto burglaries, was sentenced to 26 months’ imprisonment today at the city’s federal courthouse.
Miller Jernigan, 31, was arrested near Kezar Stadium on February 1 2026 after his blue Nissan Rogue triggered a license plate reader – a Flock camera – and SFPD used a drone to track the vehicle and identify him as the driver. Officers knew he was on parole and had an outstanding arrest warrant.
In his jacket pocket was a 9mm Taurus semi-automatic pistol. In his duffel bag was a loaded .357 Glock 31 pistol equipped with a laser sight plus 38 rounds of ammunition.
“You have a long, long criminal history,” said U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley today. “Pretty much every time you’re released you’re found with a gun. You’re fortunate to be standing in front of us today and you are not dead and no one else is either.”
The judge imposed a sentence of 26 months agreed upon by prosecutors and the defense. The judge stressed that she wanted him to participate in intensive treatment for drug addiction when released.
“I really just want to show through my actions that I get it,” Jernigan told the court earlier in the hearing. “I want to separate my future from my past.”
He earlier pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Jernigan was convicted of robbery in 2016 and sentenced to a year in jail. His probation was later revoked, and he served three years in state prison.
In 2020 prosecutors dismissed a murder charge against him after he was accused of murdering 19-year-old Corey Clay in Oakland.
In 2021 he was convicted in federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in federal prison. The conviction was for the stolen loaded handgun police found in his car that June, after he rammed a police car at Fourth and Bryant streets to avoid arrest and injured two officers.
After his release he repeatedly tested positive for drugs, failed to complete both outpatient and residential drug treatment, and violated his supervised release by leading police on a high-speed chase. In 2024 he was sentenced to two years in state prison after he was arrested with a gun.
“[T]he government recognizes that Jernigan has spent much of the last decade under the influence of drugs,” assistant U.S. attorney Sloan Heffron told the court in a sentencing memorandum, “and the [pre-sentence report] describes his intractable opiate addiction, which dates back to 2017.”
“While this history in no way excuses Jernigan’s criminal conduct, it provides context for some of the extremely poor decisions he has made in recent years,” he added.
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