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A man acquitted in the 2008 quadruple slaying of a western Birmingham family was indicted last week on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a fire­arm.

Shaunasty Lowe, 21, of Birmingham, is to be ar­raigned on the charge in federal court on June 16, ac­cording to federal court re­cords.

Lowe was indicted for be­ing a felon in possession of a firearm by a federal grand jury on June 2, but the in­dictment was not unsealed until June 7.

Efforts to reach Lowe’s at­torney for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

Jurors in September 2010 had acquitted Lowe of charges that he killed Der­rick and Elizabeth Wither­spoon and her two children, Justin and Jerome McFar­land, in west Birmingham in July 2008. Prosecutors pres­ented no physical evidence that linked Lowe to the scene of the crime, and his attorneys contended that Lowe had nothing to do with the family’s deaths.

It was the second trial for Lowe. The first ended in a mistrial in May 2010.

Lowe’s most recent prob­lems stem from his arrest in November, two months af­ter his acquittal on the capi­tal murder charges.
 
Lowe was among six peo­ple arrested by Birmingham police as they investigated
the Nov. 17 shooting death of Clifford Whitely, a 21-year old Pleasant Grove man whose body was found at East Brownsville Park.

Lowe was not charged in connection with that death. But he was charged with un­lawful possession of mari­juana and was also in pos­session of a stolen handgun, police said at that time.

In February Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge William Cole revoked the two-year probation Lowe had been given from his Oct. 4, 2010 conviction of possession of heroin charge in a 2008 case. Lowe ad­mitted to violating the con­ditions of his probation by committing the new offense of possession of marijuana second-degree, according to Cole’s order sending Lowe to prison.

The federal charge of a felon in possession of a fire­arm also stems from his No­vember arrest, according to his federal indictment. The indictment states that Lowe
had a Smith and Wesson .38 special revolver despite be­ing a felon based on his
Oc­tober drug conviction.

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