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Las Vegas man pleads guilty in federal ‘ghost gun’ case

Updated September 30, 2025 - 9:33 am

A Las Vegas man with a history of felony convictions pleaded guilty on Monday for a case in which he was accused of pointing a loaded “ghost gun” at a person and threatened to “shoot everyone” in 2023, according to federal officials.

Noel Lynn Waters faces up to 15 years in prison on one charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, said the office of the U.S. attorney of Nevada in a news release.

He’s slated to be sentenced in January.

Court records show that Waters was originally charged with three felonies, including possession of an unregistered firearm silencer or muffler.

After the Oct. 20, 2023, incident near Charleston and Lamb boulevards, Waters was caught with a “privately-manufactured” 5.56x45mm semi-automatic pistol, according to his complaint.

The weapon had an unregistered AR-15 lower receiver and a silencer that also had no serial number, the complaint said.

A person reported to the Metropolitan Police Department that Waters had pointed the gun at him that morning, the complaint said. “The caller reported the man then drove into a nearby parking lot shouting out the window of the BMW that he was going to shoot everybody.”

Another 911 caller reported that a man had threatened employees at a business, the complaint said.

Officers found Waters and a passenger parked outside the business, the complaint said.

The gun was “in plain view” on the floorboard of the driver’s side, the complaint said. Waters told police that he had bought the gun parts in “stores or online.”

He further stated that he had just “showed” the gun at the victim during a “dispute to warn the man off,” the complaint said.

Waters has criminal convictions out of Los Angeles County for gun and drug charges that date back to 2003, the complaint said. In 2022, he was convicted in Clark County for possession of a firearm by a felon.

The recent case was investigated by Metro and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the release said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.

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