ORLANDO, Fla. — A 21-year-old man who admitted having a machine gun on campus when he attended the University of Central Florida in 2019 won’t spend a day in federal prison.

A federal judge in Orlando last month sentenced Max Chambers of Sarasota to one year of probation.

A semi-automatic AR-15 found in his vehicle in January 2019 was illegally modified into a fully automatic rifle, meeting the legal definition of a machine gun, according to investigators and prosecutors.

Chambers also had a device in his dorm room to convert semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic ones. The device itself is classified as a machine gun. He had two of them.

When his arrest was announced January 30, 2019, UCF Police said in a statement there was no “expressed threat to the university community.”

An attorney for Chambers agreed.

“There is no allegation that he intended to do anything harmful to anyone at any time,” attorney Mark P. Rankin of Tampa said in a eight-page petition filed before his client’s sentencing.

Under a deal with federal prosecutors, Chambers pleaded guilty in August to one charge of possessing a machine gun, a crime punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. 

In exchange, prosecutors dropped a second machine-gun possession charge and proposed a sentence of 18 to 24 months in prison.

Chambers wanted no prison time. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron agreed at a sentencing hearing in Orlando on November 18.

Byron adjudicated Chambers guilty of one machine-gun-possession charge and sentenced him to one year of probation, waiving mandatory drug-testing requirements.

The judge imposed no fine, though he levied a special assessment against Chambers for $100.

Chambers’s interest in fully automatic rifles and conversion devices developed because of his curiosity, mechanical skills, military interests, and creative drive, his attorney said. He never intended harm.

“Until this incident, Mr. Chambers had never been arrested, much less convicted of any serious criminal offense. He is by nature non-violent and there is no allegation that he intended to commit any act of violence in this case,” Rankin added. “He was a talented, curious, smart young man who made a very bad (and permanent, costly) decision.”

He described his client as a smart, sweet and peaceful young man who has been punished enough for the severity of his alleged crimes. He was expelled from UCF after his arrest and ejected from the Army ROTC. 

He was a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering at the time of his arrest. Now he is a convicted felon. He is currently enrolled at Suncoast Technical College. He plans to earn a bachelor’s degree.

“Mr. Chambers dreamed of a military career. That dream died when he was arrested and charged in this case,” Rankin added. “Mr. Chambers has suffered crippling collateral consequences due to this case – despite never hurting another person, stealing from anyone, or selling narcotics.”