A man convicted of a 2020 hate crime against an LGBTQ+ community member has learned his fate. John Russell Howald was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Great Falls to 18 years in prison for firing an AK-47 rifle into the Basin home of a woman in 2020 in what he said was an effort to “clean” the town. He received eight years for one count of committing a hate crime and 10 years for discharging a firearm in relation to a violent crime. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively, according to court records. No one was injured in the shooting. -0-