Chase Ryan Daniel Hooper

Introduction

Chase Ryan Daniel Hooper, a 27-year-old Billings, Montana man, was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty in July 2026 to unlawfully possessing a firearm. The government’s court documents alleged that Hooper fled from Yellowstone County Sheriff’s deputies while driving a motorcycle without a license plate; when deputies caught up with him, they discovered ammunition in his pockets and a 9mm handgun in the saddlebag of his motorcycle. Because Hooper had previously been convicted of a felony, his possession of the gun was itself the federal crime. U.S. District Judge Kathleen S. Lane imposed the sentence.

Background Information

The case is a document of how a minor traffic violation becomes a federal gun conviction when the rider is a prohibited person. The unlicensed motorcycle drew the deputies’ attention; the flight from them turned a plate stop into a pursuit; and the saddlebag’s contents turned the pursuit into a felon-in-possession case. Hooper’s prior felony conviction was the element that made the 9mm illegal for him to carry at all — the same firearm a licensed rider could lawfully transport. The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency that handles prohibited-possession referrals in the district.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Chase Ryan Daniel Hooper led Yellowstone County deputies on a motorcycle flight and was caught with ammunition in his pockets and a 9mm handgun in the saddlebag; as a felon, he pleaded guilty to unlawful firearm possession and was sentenced to 30 months.

The flight sequence alleged in court documents gave the case its shape: Hooper, riding an unlicensed motorcycle through Billings, fled when Yellowstone County Sheriff’s deputies moved in, and the pursuit ended with deputies catching up to him on the machine. The search of his person and vehicle produced the two findings that built the federal case — ammunition in his pockets and the 9mm handgun stowed in the motorcycle’s saddlebag. The government’s possession case required no more than those two facts plus the prior felony conviction: a prohibited person, in possession, with the gun within his reach as he rode.

Hooper resolved the case by plea rather than trial, admitting the unlawful possession in July 2026. Judge Lane’s sentence — two years and six months, with three years of supervised release to follow — runs from the sentencing announced in the District of Montana, converting a license-plate stop and a short motorcycle flight into a thirty-month federal term. The release does not report additional counts, so the saddlebag gun stands as the whole case.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Scott Twito’s office for the District of Montana, with Judge Kathleen S. Lane presiding and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Godfrey prosecuting the case on the ATF investigation. The case falls within Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department of Justice’s violent-crime initiative, and its Operation Take Back America framework — the program structure under which Yellowstone County pursuits of prohibited possessors are prosecuted federally.

The documented consequences are the thirty-month custody term, the three-year supervised release obligation that extends the court’s oversight beyond custody, and the felony firearms conviction that deepens the prohibited-person status that generated the case. The ammunition in his pockets and the 9mm in the saddlebag are the documented inventory of the offense.

Current Status

Hooper, 27, is sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, per Judge Lane’s imposition announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The release documents no appeal and no remaining charges. At 27, the custody term runs through his late twenties and the supervised release term his early thirties — a five-year total span of court control triggered by a license-plate-less motorcycle and a saddlebag. The prior felony conviction that prohibited his possession remains the factual key to the case: without it, the same ride would have generated a traffic citation rather than a federal sentence.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case documents the Yellowstone County enforcement pattern where a sheriff’s deputy pursuit and an ATF referral combine into a federal firearms sentence: the deputies supplied the stop, the flight, and the seizure; the ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office supplied the prohibited-possession prosecution; the court supplied the term. For Hooper, the 30-month sentence is the documented price of riding armed as a felon — the 9mm he stowed in the saddlebag and the ammunition he carried in his pockets are now the two facts of his federal conviction. For Billings, the case is a data point in the Project Safe Neighborhoods accounting of how unlicensed riders fleeing deputies become federal defendants when the saddlebag is searched. The supervised release years will govern a man whose thirties begin under the conditions of a firearms conviction he pleaded to rather than litigated.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Montana, “Billings man sentenced to more than 2 years in prison for unlawfully possessing handgun,” November 2026. source