Phillips Man Sentenced for Drug User in Possession of Firearm

Acting United States Attorney Matthew R. Molsen announced that Tyler Caudill, age 22, of Phillips, Nebraska, was sentenced on April 10, 2025, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, for possession of a firearm while an unlawful user of marijuana and THC. United States District Judge Susan M. Bazis sentenced Caudill to 37 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Caudill’s release from prison, he will begin a three-year term of supervised release. 

On the morning of May 4, 2021, authorities in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office learned that Caudill had taken a pickup without permission and his father was missing an AR-15 style rifle. That same morning, surveillance cameras captured Caudill walking through an aviation building attached to the Central Nebraska Regional Airport (CNRA) in Grand Island, Nebraska. Caudill was carrying several bags including a rifle case. He was able to make his way onto the tarmac where an 11-person Cessna Citation Bravo aircraft was parked. He opened the hatch and entered the aircraft. He brought some personal belongings along with an AR-15 rifle and some ammunition onto the aircraft.

Later that afternoon, when pilots entered the aircraft to prepare for flight, they found Caudill asleep on the plane and the firearm in the cabin. One pilot threw Caudill’s bags out of the plane, removed the rifle from the plane, then contacted police. Grand Island police officers arrived to assist. Caudill was seen trying to manipulate the controls of the airplane once he awoke. A tactical team of investigators was eventually able to remove him from the plane after deploying chemical munitions. An inbound flight from Dallas was diverted to Kansas due to the disruption at the airport. No one was injured.

Caudill was taken to the hospital where he admitted having used marijuana and THC. A urine sample tested positive for the presence of THC. Caudill claimed possession of the firearm and told investigators he believed he was going to take the plane to a bunker in Montana. Investigators collected THC vape cartridges from his clothing.

This case was investigated by the Grand Island Police Department, the Kearney Police Department, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.