Colorado man who detonated bomb at NAACP building gets five years

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[November 04, 2015]  By Keith Coffman
 
 DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado Springs man who detonated a homemade pipe bomb outside a building that housed the local branch of the NAACP civil rights organization was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison on arson and firearms charges, authorities said.

Thaddeus Murphy, 44, was sentenced in Denver by U.S. District Judge William Martinez. The prison term will be followed by three years of supervised probation, court documents showed.

Murphy pleaded guilty in August to damaging by explosives or fire a building used for interstate commerce in the Jan. 6 bombing at a Colorado Springs office building, and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms.

Murphy denied to federal agents that he targeted the office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but said he was furious at his tax accountant who once had an office in the same building.

No one was injured in the blast from the pipe bomb that charred an exterior wall of the building.
 


Murphy was arrested after witnesses provided a description that matched Murphy's appearance, as well as his distinctive pickup truck that was seen leaving the area.

A search of Murphy's home uncovered remnants from the crude explosive, including road flares, galvanized steel pipe, duct tape and shotgun shells, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver said in a statement.

Investigators also found two assault rifles, a handgun, two shotguns, a World War Two-era Russian-made battle rifle, and a homemade silencer, prosecutors said.

"The defendant admitted that he knew he was not allowed to possess firearms because he was a convicted felon," the U.S. attorney's statement said.

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In a sentencing statement filed with the court, Murphy's lawyers said the carpenter was suffering from depression, insomnia and anxiety, and wanted to file for bankruptcy but could not reach his one-time tax preparer.

"Under these unique set of circumstances, Mr. Murphy made a horrible mistake: he set an explosive device near a building he thought belonged to his former tax accountant in order to scare him," the defense statement said.

"His crimes are serious ones, but no one was injured by his actions and no real damage was done to the building."

Thomas Ravenelle, special agent in charge of the FBI's Denver division, said Murphy "terrorized the community of Colorado Springs."

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Peter Cooney)

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