NATCHEZ — An Arkansas man who made threats over the phone of a mass shooting at Natchez High School in July 2022 has been sentenced to federal prison.

Kenneth Allen Moody, 33, originally of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Louisiana, to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

A federal grand jury indicted Moody on Aug. 24, 2022, charging him with one county of interstate communication of a threat as a result of making a threatening phone call to the Vidalia Police Department, during which he told Vidalia Police he wanted to turn himself in because he was planning a mass shooting at Natchez High School.

Moody was living in Vidalia at the time.

Moody told the dispatcher he had been planning the shooting for months and had loaded automatic weapons.

Vidalia Police officers were able to trace the cellular device and receive subscriber information and tracked it to Moody, who was in Vidalia when he made the call.

U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown, whose office prosecuted the case in Judge Dee D. Drell’s courtroom, said Moody admitted to making the call to Vidalia Police with the intent to make a threat or with the knowledge that the communication would be viewed as a threat.

Brown said the case was investigated by the FBI and the Vidalia Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tennille M. Gilreath.