A Maui man was sentenced in federal court to more than three years in prison after setting off an improvised explosive on Maui last year.
Jess Kiesel Lee, 43, will serve 40 months in prison, for possessing explosive powder as a previously convicted felon, Ken Sorenson, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawai‘i, announced on Tuesday.
According to Sorenson’s announcement, Lee had detonated a homemade firework at a site near Ka‘amana Street, a short road south of Kula, on Aug. 7 of 2024.
Following an initial investigation by the Maui Police Department, additional fireworks — which were classified as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs — were found nearby. Further investigation by the FBI discovered Lee’s fingerprints on at least one of the explosives.
When the FBI searched Lee’s residence in Kula one month later, they found more IEDs containing flash powder, a common firework powder, along with guns, ammunition and methamphetamines.
Lee later admitted to investigators that the flash powder used to make the explosives was his.
Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing any explosive materials, including flash powder, gunpowder or fireworks. Lee had been convicted of multiple felony offenses in Hawai‘i, most recently in 2018 on a count breaking into an unoccupied vehicle.
Lee does not appear to have been charged in relation to the methamphetamine or the firearms — which, as a convicted felon, he was also prohibited from owning — at his house.
U.S. District Judge Jill Otake noted in her sentencing of Lee that testing homemade fireworks in a wooded area on an island susceptible to wildfires was particularly dangerous to the surrounding community.
“The protection and safety of our community is our highest priority,” Sorenson said in a statement. “We have witnessed the serious harm and life-threatening danger presented by the possession and use of illegal explosives in our local communities, including illegal fireworks.”
David Porter, FBI Honolulu’s Special Agent in Charge, said that homemade explosives “present a significant danger to our island communities,” and that the FBI “is committed to using every tool available to hold criminals accountable when they threaten public safety.”
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