Bobb'e J. Thompson, the 30-year-old former child actor, was sentenced in Sioux City to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing a stolen firearm. He will also serve three years of supervised release and remain in U.S. Marshals custody until he is transferred to a federal prison.
Sioux City sentence
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced the sentence on September 16, turning a case that began with a traffic stop into a federal prison term. U.S. District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand imposed the punishment after Thompson pleaded guilty in April.
Evidence in the case showed a September 22, 2025 stop in Cerro Gordo County after law enforcement saw Thompson driving 104 mph in a 70-mph zone. Officers said they then observed Thompson and the passenger switching seats, a move that fit the kind of seat-swap behavior officers watch for when they are sorting out who was driving and who is trying to distance himself from the vehicle.
A loaded handgun
During the search, officers said they found Thompson's backpack with multiple bags of dispensary-bought marijuana and a.40 caliber handgun that was fully loaded with a 15-round magazine and a round in the chamber. The firearm had been reported stolen from a vehicle in Kansas City, Missouri.
Thompson's record already included a 2020 conviction for battery causing serious bodily injury and assault with force, which may have resulted in great bodily injury, along with a 2022 conviction for prohibited possession of a firearm. That history helps explain why the new sentence lands as more than a routine firearms case: federal court added prison time and supervised release on top of an existing criminal record.
Thompson's legal record
The filing also identifies Thompson as a former child actor who appeared on That's So Raven and 30 Rock, and says he recently featured in the 2026 movie The Funny Thing About Love. For a defendant still working on-screen while facing a federal sentence, the business reality is blunt: the prison term takes him out of public view and into federal custody first.
Three years of supervised release means the case does not end when the prison term ends. The sentence now moves from court to custody, with Thompson held by U.S. Marshals until transfer and then subject to federal supervision after release.
