After little more than an hour of deliberation, a McHenry County jury has found a convicted felon guilty of unlawfully possessing a pistol and cocaine while on parole.

John T. Boland, 39, of Antioch, was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver 15 to 100 grams of cocaine, armed violence and being an armed habitual criminal, all Class X felonies; he was also convicted of unlawful possession of weapons by a felon and possessing less than five grams of methamphetamine, court records show.

He also had been charged for possession of fentanyl, but the charge was dismissed after further testing showed the powder did not contain the synthetic opioid.

McHenry police arrested Boland on May 3, 2024, following a traffic stop of a Mercedes-Benz in which he was a passenger. Inside the Mercedes, police found a black backpack that contained cocaine. While police searched the vehicle, driven by a woman who was not charged, they briefly detained Boland and put him in the backseat of the squad car, and later police found a 9mm Glock 43 in the back of the squad car where Boland had been sitting, according to a court document.

“A review of squad video shows [Boland] shoving the gun in between the seats,” Assistant State’s Attorney Shelby Page wrote in a motion in the McHenry County court.

The prosecutor said jurors saw the video of Boland cuffed in the back of the squad and kicking the gun out of his pant leg. Though the video did not clearly show the pistol jurors did see Boland shoving “something” between the seats, Page said. A DNA expert testified this week that Boland’s DNA was on the gun found between the seats.

Jurors also heard testimony from Grayslake Police Officer Nicholas Behan about what lead to Boland’s 2022 Lake County conviction.

In March of 2021 the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group found 480.9 grams of heroin, a scale with white residue on it and packaging materials in his home. He was later convicted of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, a Class X felony.

Leading up to his 2021 arrest police learned that a package was mailed to Boland’s house from Mexico containing the heroin. The heroin was discovered when the package arrived in a postal center in Tennessee and it was scanned, Page said.

Lake County authorities were notified and when the package arrived in Illinois a sensor was added to the package tracking it into Boland’s home, Page said.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison, documents show. With credit for time served and Illinois truth-in-sentencing laws Boland was released from Sheridan Correctional Center on Nov. 6, 2023, and was on parol when charged in McHenry, records show.

Boland was represented by attorneys from the McHenry County Public Defender’s Office who declined to comment. Sentencing is scheduled for March 20.