Donald Ray Harris had two big surprises waiting on him when he appeared in Circuit Court Judge Charles Holcomb’s courtroom Thursday for a pre-trial conference.

Assistant State Attorney Phil Archer announced the state was dropping the two charges Harris was arrested on last November after he fired a modified AK-47 outside a female acquaintance’s home in Mims. And then two federal marshals slapped on handcuffs as Archer told the stunned courtroom that Harris was now facing federal charges under State Attorney Norm Wolfinger’s Operation Cease-Fire and would hopefully be going to federal prison for up to 15 years.

"This man has already been in state prison on at least four serious offenses and is known to have had numerous weapons over the years. He had been out on bond in the community for a few months and we felt the safest place to make this arrest for both the community and law enforcement was in the courtroom after he had been screened by a metal detector," Archer said.

Harris went to first appearance in Orlando within hours of his arrest and finished the day sitting in the Seminole County jail under a federal no-bond firearms charge. Under the Cease-Fire program, he will go to trial within three months and will not be allowed out on bond before the trial. If found guilty, he faces 15 years in federal prison, Archer said.

Harris, who also served prison time for a sex offense on a child, is a registered sex offender.

Harris was arrested on state charges of carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after Brevard County deputies responded to a report of shots being fired on Nov. 12 in Mims. The deputies found him alone in his truck in the area after a witness pointed him out. The modified AK-47 was covered by a sheet in the floorboard.

Harris’ additional prior convictions are for cocaine and firearms charges. The indictment was the 62 federal indictment handed down since State Attorney Norman Wolfinger initiated Operation Cease-Fire, a gun violence prevention program in Brevard and Seminole counties. Operating under Project Safe Neighborhoods, Wolfinger set up the cross-training of state prosecutors in the federal system where more than 50 individuals from Brevard and Seminole have been sent to federal prison. The advantage to prosecuting cases that warrant federal attention is that they go to trial faster, defendants generally are not allowed to bond out prior to trial, receive stiffer penalties and may be sent to federal penitentiaries far from Florida, thereby interrupting the continuation of gang activity. Wolfinger has also initiated a unique arrangement whereby federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives work in his office, meeting weekly with a Gun Prosecution Task Force. The Task Force has members of all interested local law enforcement who, with the immediate access to ATF, can fast track guns confiscated on their streets.

Within the past week, a Melbourne drug dealer was sentenced under the same program to 25 years in federal prison. Melbourne Police arrested Joseph Lee Holmes, 30, on April 22, 2006; he went to trial and was found guilty in January; and he was sentenced Monday.