Attorney General Jackley Announces SD Supreme Court Affirms Terrorism Threat Conviction
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that the South Dakota Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and sentence of Lucian Celestine for attempted threat of felony terrorism. He had been convicted in Pennington County after making threats to President Donald Trump and taking steps toward carrying out those threats.
“Threats against the President of the United States and public officials are taken seriously,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We will continue to prosecute individuals who seek to harm or intimidate public officials and their families.”
According to court records, Celestine first contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in September 2019 claiming he was hearing voices instructing him to kill President Trump. In June 2020, Celestine attempted to purchase a sniper-style rifle through an online firearms marketplace and requested a scope capable of shooting up to 600 yards along with ammunition. The seller, a Brookings police officer acting as a private citizen, became concerned about Celestine’s behavior and reported the interaction to the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
Law enforcement later contacted Celestine as authorities prepared for President Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial for the 2020 Independence Day fireworks celebration. During the encounter, Celestine acknowledged he had contacted the FBI and admitted he had recently obtained a rifle. Officers located a Browning X-Bolt .300 Winchester Magnum rifle, ammunition, and targets in the trunk of his vehicle.
After being taken to the Rapid City Public Safety Building and advised of his rights, Celestine told investigators that voices in his head instructed him to kill the President. He described a plan to go to Mount Rushmore and position himself above the monument. He was subsequently arrested and indicted for threat of felony terrorism.
Celestine entered a guilty plea in November 2024 to SDCL 22-8-13 which is Attempted Threat of Felony Terrorism. In March 2025, the Pennington County Circuit Court sentenced him to two and a half years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary with credit for time served.
Celestine later appealed his conviction and sentence, but the South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s judgment.
The Attorney General’s Office represented the state at the appeal.
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All threats against anyone should be taken seriously, not just politicians. Murders should be found and sentenced. Not just ignored because they were native and special needs.
Browning X-Bolts rifles are not “sniper style” rifles. They are hunting rifles. The man committed a terrible crime, but Jackley diidn’t need to sensationalize the weapon. He did that to create a heightened fear factor. Jackley could have gotten the conviction with a honest description of the weapon. He didn’t need to fear monger. That is not the approach of a man I want to serve as my representative in Congress. I do not trust him to defend my second amendment rights.
What I read in the above article was that he wanted to buy a sniper-style gun and requested a scope capable of 600 yards’ range, not that he bought one. The interaction between the buyer and seller was so alarming the seller notified the DCI. In fact, it is unclear in the article if the seller who reported him to the DCI actually sold him anything at all, and the rifle found in the car might have been acquired somewhere else.
It is easy to assume the rifle in his possession was purchased in Brookings but the article doesn’t say that.
I see what you’re saying. The way the release is written, it could be read either way. It’s unclear whether the phrasing is Jackley’s or the perpetrator’s.
in the KOTA version, it was reported that he TRIED to buy a sniper-style rifle and REQUESTED a long range scope, and the marketplace seller reported the INTERACTION (not a transaction?) to the DCI.
When the police picked him up, he said he had recently OBTAINED (purchased? borrowed? stole?) the rifle in his car.
This just goes to show that the words journalists use are important, as well as punctuation. There are no quotation marks around the reference to a sniper-style rifle to indicate anybody other than the journalist described the gun that way.
Marty I’m still waiting for the decapitation murder of Kendra Owens in watertown that you botched to come to justice.
You think he should have manufactured evidence?
Scared of their own shadows. We used to 86 people from the bar all the time and now Potus is trying to use that to punish his enemies because Republicans are a bunch of babies. Gas is up. Economy is down. War in the middle east. Debt is skyrocketing. Must be a Republican in office. No one adds more debt, blows more money in the middle east, and shifts money to the wealthy like Republicans can.