Abilene ? A county prosecutor who dropped murder and other charges against an Abilene man after a federal indictment on weapons charges said she had been assured the suspect would face a capital murder charge in U.S. District Court.

Christopher L. Grimes, 23, was to have gone on trial Monday in the Jan. 6 slaying of Keith Riffel, 35, also of Abilene. Grimes had been charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated intimidation of a witness.

But Dickinson County Atty. Kristie Hildebrand filed a motion Aug. 21 to dismiss those charges, a day after a federal grand jury indicted Grimes on charges that he possessed firearms illegally and sold stolen firearms. Conviction on all counts could mean a sentence of up to 120 years in federal prison, without parole.

Hildebrand said federal prosecution of Grimes offers “a chance to hit him with harder penalties than we ever could in state court.”

Under federal law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty or a prison sentence of up to 30 years in cases where a firearm used in a crime is equipped with a silencer. Hildebrand said a handmade silencer was found on the .22-caliber handgun believed to have been the one used to kill Riffel.

Eric Melgren, the U.S. attorney for Kansas, announced the firearms charges Wednesday against Grimes. Melgren spokeswoman Kena Rice said the office would not comment on the possibility of a capital punishment case.

But Hildebrand said she had been told Grimes would face a capital murder charge in federal court.

“I have been assured that they intend to seek that, yes,” Hildebrand said Wednesday.

Riffel was shot multiple times at the home he shared with his wife, Amy Creach, who is Grimes’ aunt.

Grimes said the shooting was accidental, and that Riffel had lunged at him as he was reaching in his coat to get money he owed the couple. His attorney, Keith Hoffman, argued that Riffel was a drug dealer with a violent temper and that Grimes reacted with force because he was depressed and suicidal.

The gun was stolen from Lucy Davis, Grimes’ grandmother and Creach’s mother. The federal crimes facing Grimes accuse him of stealing many other firearms from his deceased grandfather’s gun collection.