A 19-year-old arrested last year after his mother found a pipe bomb taped under a dresser in his room has pled guilty to federal charges of possession of a destructive device.
The plea was entered by Gavin Daniel Ogle January 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. A date for formal sentencing has not been set. Ogle is being held for the federal court in the Washington County jail.
He is charged in Baxter County with criminal possession of explosives. A hearing in his state case is now set for March 30. The state case is likely to be dismissed in light of the activity in federal court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Ogle’s ex-girlfriend told his mother about the explosive.
After it was found, the mother sent Ogle’s probation officer a picture of the device. The officer reached out to a Baxter County sheriff’s deputy who responded to the scene.
When lawmen arrived at the mother’s residence along Sunny Slope Street, they discovered she had removed the device from her son’s room and put it on the dining room table.
An Arkansas State Police special agent advised that everyone should vacate the house until he could arrive and secure the device.
When the agent arrived, he defused the device. It was described as a metal tube filed with wood screws, nails, .22-caliber rifle shells, shotgun pellets, gun powder and firecrackers.
A picture of the device was sent to an ATF agent in Little Rock to have the device certified as a pipe bomb. The agent was able to make that certification the same day.
Ogle was arrested July 10, a day after the device was discovered, on a warrant issued in Marion County for non-payment of fines from a previous arrest. His charges were later updated to include possession of the explosive device.
When he was brought in for questioning on the pipe bomb incident, Ogle was said to have admitted making the device and said it was for his own protection. He told investigators he did not plan on “using it on anyone” but had become paranoid at one point and made the device to protect himself.
Investigators noted Ogle was not able to give “clear answers” on details as to his plans for the device.
It was noted that Ogle smiled throughout the interview. He was asked at one point why he was smiling considering the seriousness of the potential charges against him and was reported to have replied there was nothing he “could do about that now.”
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