An Arizona man could face multiple decades in prison and more than $1 million in fines for allegedly torching a Tesla Cybertruck at a Mesa, Ariz., dealership last month, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
Ian William Moses, 35, of Mesa, was indicted this week on five felony counts of malicious damage to property used in interstate commerce. Authorities have alleged that Moses used gasoline and a starter log to try to set the dealership and three Tesla vehicles on fire on April 28, amid a wave of retaliation against tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration.
The Department of Justice, in a news release announcing the federal jury’s indictment of Moses, shared photos of a burned-out Cybertruck that exploded during the attack.
According to local media reports, the suspect spray-painted graffiti on the side of the building that misspelled the word “THIEF.”
Mesa Police arrested Moses less than a mile away from the Tesla dealership shortly after the fire started, and he was wearing the same clothes as the person seen in surveillance footage pouring gasoline on the building. Officers also allegedly found 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, said in a statement. “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, each count carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Moses’s indictment that there would be “no negotiating” on the charges.
“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 said.
Bondi indicated earlier this year that vandalism targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles would be treated as “domestic terrorism.”
“The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism,” she said in a March 18 statement. “We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.”
