Pray man sentenced after police find explosives, plans to attack Chico Hot Springs

PARK COUNTY, Mont. - A man from the unincorporated community of Pray, Montana was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to possessing unregistered explosives, specifically 'Molotov cocktails.'

Police initially responded to reports of a dead body in a travel trailer where 24-year-old Kadin Hawkeye Lewis lived in September 2022. During a search, police also found eight assembled Molotov cocktails, dozens of empty bottles and rags that could be assembled into others and journals detailing "violent extremist and racially motivated drawings and writing," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Montana.

In the journals, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Lewis expressed adoration of mass shooters and described plans to use Molotov cocktails to attack Chico Hot Springs and other hot spring resorts throughout the state.

"He wrote about using the Molotov cocktails and firearms to build up a “kill count” as high as possible, aiming for between '17 and 30 casualties,'" according to the press release.

"The Molotov cocktail evidence from the trailer was collected and submitted to the FBI Laboratory. Explosives experts there determined the material inside the bottles was an ignitable liquid that, when lit, would function as an improvised incendiary device, commonly known as homemade firebombs or Molotov cocktails," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Lewis was also ordered to three years of supervised release after prison.