MISSOULA – An Auburn, Washington man who illegally possessed several firearms was sentenced Wednesday to 115 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

Mallory Nehemiah Brown, 44, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided.

The government alleged in court documents that on June 9, 2004, Brown was convicted of bank robbery in the Eastern District of California. Brown was sentenced to 51 months in prison to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. The conditions of his supervision included that Brown was not allowed to own, possess, or have access to a firearm or ammunition.

On Jan. 8, 2024, Brown boarded an Amtrak train in Seattle, with a black duffel bag and several long boxes. Brown placed his bags and boxes on the luggage rack. The train was bound for Washington D.C., with a stop in Chicago.

On Jan. 9, 2024, the train stopped in Libby, based on a complaint by other passengers that Brown exposed himself to two teen-age girls. Law enforcement contacted Brown and removed him from the train. 

The train conductor located Brown’s bag and boxes on the luggage rack. Inside, he discovered four firearms, ammunition, magazines, a suppressor, eight firearms receivers, night vision googles, a tactical vest and other assorted accessories. Law enforcement took custody of the bags and inventoried their contents.

Brown denied the bags belong to him. However, several Amtrak employees identified Brown as the person who loaded the bags on the train. Further, one of the boxes had a shipping label on it addressed to “Mallory Brown.”

Aug. 27, Brown agreed to a plead guilty to misdemeanor indecent exposure to a minor. A felony assault charge relating to an incident in the county jail after Brown was locked up was reduced to a misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty to that count, too.

Brown faced a maximum of 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release. Brown remains locked up in the Missoula County Detention Center. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, Libby Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Probation and Parole conducted the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Lowney prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by the ATF, FBI, Libby Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Probation and Parole.

In the probable cause statement in the indecent exposure case, Libby Chief of Police Cody Ercanbrack was dispatched to the train station in Libby after Amtrak police called reporting a man was exposing himself on the train. When the train pulled in, Ercanbrack and former county Sheriff’s Office Captain John Davis met with the train conductor and staff who told the officers that a man was masturbating in front of some juvenile girls.

Ercanbrack spoke with the man, identified as Brown, and asked him if he had been masturbating on the train. He allegedly said he had his hand down his pants while he slept.

Ercanbrack then spoke to the sisters, one 14 years old and the other, 16 years old. The 14-year-old victim said Brown sat down in front of them and said he kept looking back at them while he masturbated. They told the officer they could see Brown’s penis as he touched himself while he looked back at them.

One of the girls got her grandma, who then sat in her seat and she also witnessed Brown masturbating, according to the court document. The grandmother found the conductor and told him what was happening. The conductor called Lincoln County Dispatch to request Brown be removed from the train and charged.

According to the probable cause statement by Ercanbrack, Brown had a conviction for indecent exposure on March 8, 2017, in Miles City, Montana.

In the jail assault case, it began on Feb. 11 when county Deputy Derek Breiland learned of an incident at the jail at about 10:35 a.m. Breiland reported that while passing out morning medications, Detention Officer Martin saw Brown grab an orange jail sock with a blunt object inside, walk into another inmate’s pod where he repeatedly struck a man. Martin told Breiland the assault appeared to be unprovoked.

The alleged victim, a 35-year-old man, told Breiland he was laying on his bed when Brown entered his cell and struck him multiple times. The man said there was no argument or conversation before the assault and he was unaware it would happen.

Breiland reported the weapon was made of two jail socks which held a bar of soap. The deputy also reported that Brown was involved in other assaults in the jail since he’d been locked up in January. He also said Brown had a lengthy criminal history from multiple states with multiple assault convictions dating back to 2014.