Informational: Federal Court arraignments

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that the following persons were arraigned or appeared this week before U.S. Magistrate judges on indictments handed down by the Grand Jury or on criminal complaints. The charging documents are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty:

Appearing in Billings before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan and pleading not guilty on May 12 was:

Maliyah Jae Chavez, 18, of Billings, and Rodrigo Gomez, 19, of Billings, on charges of possession of stolen firearms. If convicted of the most serious crime, Chavez and Gomez face a maximum 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Both defendants were detained pending further proceedings. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-28.

Bo Bryan Fish, 40, of Worden, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute meth and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. If convicted of the most serious crime, Fish faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release. In addition, Fish faces a minimum mandatory five years to life consecutive to any other crime on the firearms count. Fish was detained pending further proceedings. The FBI Western Transnational Organized Crime Task Force investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-30.

Trevion Maurice Jones, 44, of Billings, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth and possession with intent to distribute meth. If convicted of the most serious crime, Jones faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release. Jones was detained pending further proceedings. The Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and FBI Western Transnational Organized Crime Task Force investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-32.

Gaspar Feliciano Salas, 43, of Gilbert, AZ, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth, possession with intent to distribute meth and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. If convicted of the most serious crime, Salas faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release. In addition, Salas faces a minimum mandatory five years to life consecutive to any other crime on the firearms count. Salas was detained pending further proceedings. The Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and FBI Western Transnational Organized Crime Task Force investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-33.

Appearing in Great Falls before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Johnston and pleading not guilty on May 14 was:

Russell Robert Moddison, 48, of Great Falls, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. If convicted of the most serious crime, Moddison faces a minimum mandatory five years to 40 years in prison, a $5 million fine and four years of supervised release. Moddison was detained pending further proceedings. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Great Falls Police Department and Russell Country Drug Task Force investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-27.

If any of the above cases are of interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor the progress of the case regularly through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system.

To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.

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