Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
An Anderson man is scheduled to be sentenced in July after being found guilty of impersonating a homeland security officer by a federal jury in Indianapolis earlier this month.
Joshua W. Stearman, 42, also was also found guilty of unlawfully possessing incendiary bombs, commonly referred to as Molotov cocktails.
His sentencing is now scheduled for July 15 before Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt.
Stearman’s convictions stem from an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 12, 2023, when a police officer in Ingalls, Indiana, was dispatched to an address that had been vandalized numerous times over several weeks, including fires set in the driveway and at the mailbox.
Dispatch received a report of a suspicious man walking around the house carrying something, but he had gone back to his vehicle when the house lights came on.
An officer located the vehicle and found Stearman driving it. According to authorities, Stearman told the officer he was a homeland security officer returning from a “mission” and showed the officer unknown government identification with a government seal at the bottom, according to court documents. He was wearing black gloves with black duct tape around the wrists.
Stearman was placed in custody. Inside his vehicle, officers found a lighter, a torch, four bottles containing a yellow-brown liquid that smelled like fuel, as well as what appeared to be small pieces of wood or kindling inside the bottles. All four bottles had a piece of fabric sticking out from under the caps.
During his trial, experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that the liquid inside the bottles contained gasoline. Experts testified that the bottles found in Stearman’s vehicle were Molotov cocktails, which are generally illegal to possess under federal law.
Stearman faces up to 10 years in prison for possession of an unregistered firearm (Molotov cocktail), according to the U.S. code. Punishment for impersonation of an officer or employee of the United States is up to three years.
The case is United States of America v. Joshua Stearman, 1:24-cr-119.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.