An Arizona man may face a number of a long time in jail and greater than $1 million in fines for allegedly torching a Tesla Cybertruck at a Mesa, Ariz., dealership final month, federal authorities introduced Wednesday.
Ian William Moses, 35, of Mesa, was indicted this week on 5 felony counts of malicious harm to property utilized in interstate commerce. Authorities have alleged that Moses used gasoline and a starter log to attempt to set the dealership and three Tesla automobiles on hearth on April 28, amid a wave of retaliation towards tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s involvement within the Trump administration.
The Division of Justice, in a information launch asserting the federal jury’s indictment of Moses, shared images of a burned-out Cybertruck that exploded throughout the assault.
In line with native media studies, the suspect spray-painted graffiti on the aspect of the constructing that misspelled the phrase “THIEF.”
Mesa Police arrested Moses lower than a mile away from the Tesla dealership shortly after the hearth began, and he was carrying the identical garments because the particular person seen in surveillance footage pouring gasoline on the constructing. Officers additionally allegedly discovered a hand-drawn map in Moses’s pocket that had the letter “T” marking the dealership’s location.
“There is nothing American about burning down someone else’s business because you disagree with them politically,” Timothy Courchaine, the interim federal prosecutor for Arizona, mentioned in a press release. “These ongoing attacks against Tesla are not protests, they are acts of violence that have no place in Arizona or anywhere else. If someone targets Tesla with violence, they will be found and confronted with the full force of the law.”
If convicted, every depend carries a penalty of as much as 20 years in jail and a fantastic of $250,000.
Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi mentioned in a press release on Moses’s indictment that there can be “no negotiating” on the fees.
“If you engage in domestic terrorism, this Department of Justice will find you, follow the facts, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” Bondi mentioned.
Bondi indicated earlier this yr that vandalism focusing on Tesla dealerships and automobiles can be handled as “domestic terrorism.”
“The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism,” she mentioned in a March 18 assertion. “We’ll proceed investigations that impose extreme penalties on these concerned in these assaults, together with these working behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.”
