Ohio man pleads guilty to attacking romantic rival in Maryland with bomb

BALTIMORE – An Ohio man who critically wounded a romantic rival in Maryland by planting a do-it-yourself bomb inside a gift-wrapped field on the sufferer’s entrance porch has pleaded responsible to federal weapons fees.

Clayton Alexander McCoy, 32, of Chesterland, Ohio, pleaded responsible in Baltimore on Wednesday to transporting explosives with intent to injure and to possession of an unregistered firearm/explosive system in reference to the 2020 explosion on the sufferer’s residence in Carroll County, Maryland. He faces as much as 30 years in jail when he’s sentenced.

As a part of McCoy’s responsible plea, he admitted constructing a pipe bomb at his residence in Ohio and driving it to the sufferer’s residence, aspiring to kill the person, U.S. Legal professional Erek Barron stated in a information launch. McCoy knew the sufferer and his girlfriend via a stay motion role-playing battle recreation referred to as Dagorhir, in line with court docket paperwork.

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In October 2020, McCoy expressed romantic emotions for the girl, who knowledgeable McCoy that she was in a relationship and didn’t share McCoy’s romantic emotions, prosecutors stated. McCoy then devised a plan to construct and ship a bomb to the girl’s boyfriend with the intent to take away him as a romantic rival, prosecutors stated.

Late that month, McCoy drove the bomb product of shrapnel and BB’s to the person’s residence and left it inside a gift-wrapped field on the entrance porch. When the person opened the field, the bomb exploded and critically wounded him.

The sufferer spent greater than two weeks within the hospital, had to make use of a walker and underwent a number of surgical procedures to take away shrapnel from his physique, prosecutors stated.

Two attorneys with the Workplace of the Federal Public Defender who represented McCoy didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail searching for remark.