Las Vegas Tesla Arsonist Gets 5 Years; Prosecutors Had Asked for 20
Paul Hyon Kim was sentenced to the five-year minimum for the 2025 attack on a Tesla repair shop after a fight over whether it was terrorism.
A Las Vegas man who shot up and firebombed cars at a Tesla repair shop in March 2025 was sentenced on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, to five years in federal prison. Prosecutors had asked for 20.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey sentenced Paul Hyon Kim to 60 months, followed by three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said. The government had recommended 240 months.
Five years was the lowest sentence the law allowed. The gap between the two numbers came down to one question argued in the court file: whether the attack counts as a federal crime of terrorism.
What happened at the shop
In the early morning of March 18, 2025, Kim shot out two security cameras at the Tesla Collision Center Las Vegas with an AR-style rifle, according to prosecutors. He spray-painted “RESIST” in large letters across the double entrance doors and fired several shots into Tesla vehicles parked out front.
He then threw three Molotov cocktails into three vehicles. Two exploded into flames and the third did not go off. Five vehicles were destroyed beyond repair. Kim ran to his car and drove away, the office said. No one was hurt.
Kim was arrested on March 26, 2025, and has been held since, according to his lawyers. In February 2026, he pleaded guilty to all four counts, two counts of arson, one of attempted arson and one of possessing an unregistered destructive device, without a plea deal.
The fight over the word “terrorism”
When the Justice Department announced Kim’s arrest in March 2025, it called the Tesla attacks around the country a “wave of domestic terrorism.” At sentencing, prosecutors asked Judge Dorsey to apply the federal terrorism adjustment, which would have added 12 levels to Kim’s guideline score and treated him as though he had the worst possible criminal record, even though he had none.
That would have moved his recommended range from 60 to 71 months up to 210 to 262 months, according to a 44-page sentencing memorandum Kim’s lawyers, Michael L. Becker and Adam M. Solinger, filed on Oct. 6, 2026.
The U.S. Probation Office, which prepares the report judges use at sentencing, looked at the same evidence and decided the adjustment did not apply, the memo says. Kim’s lawyers made three main arguments:
- The law covers attacks on government, not on private targets. The adjustment requires a crime “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct.” The cars belonged to private owners and the shop was a private business.
- There was no message to the government. Kim made no demands, claimed no responsibility, and did not name any official, agency or policy, the lawyers wrote.
- His searches were about copying others and avoiding capture. Prosecutors said his internet searches “set out his political motivation.” The defense said that of more than 30 searches listed in the probation report, none mentioned a government policy, DOGE or Elon Musk. Many were about earlier Tesla attacks, and the largest group was about avoiding detection, such as surveillance cameras and cellphone tracking.
The lawyers also pointed to the only other Tesla-related arson sentencing they could find: an Arizona case, United States v. Moses, in which a man who used gasoline and fire-starter logs against a Tesla dealership and destroyed a Cybertruck received the same five-year minimum in January 2026.
Where the sentence landed
Judge Dorsey’s 60-month sentence matches what the probation office and the defense recommended without the terrorism adjustment. Her written judgment explaining the decision had not been posted to the public docket when Max Crime reviewed it on Oct. 15, 2026.
“There is no place for violence as a means of resolving political differences in our democracy,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah said in announcing the sentence.
The judge also signed a final forfeiture order on Oct. 14, 2026, and approved agreements to release the five vehicles to their owners and to return Kim’s electronic devices to him, the docket shows. Kim does not dispute that he owes restitution, according to his lawyers. The amount is up to the court.
The FBI, the ATF and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigated, with help from the Clark County Fire Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jake Operskalski and Dan Cowhig prosecuted the case.
