Authorities say a man serving a life sentence in Georgia state prison made and sent bombs to federal facilities in Anchorage and Washington, D.C. four years ago.
According to a federal indictment filed Wednesday in Southern Georgia’s U.S. District Court, 55-year-old David Cassady is charged with “making an unregistered destructive device,” plus two counts each of mailing a destructive device and attempted malicious use of an explosive.
The bombs were allegedly sent in January 2020 to addresses matching Alaska’s James W. Fitzgerald Courthouse and Federal Building on West 7th Avenue, as well as the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in Washington, D.C.
Georgia ABC affiliate WJCL reported that Cassady had been originally convicted of state charges including kidnapping, aggravated sodomy and false imprisonment.
The Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday that Cassady had been held at Georgia’s now-closed Reidsville state prison when the bombs were mailed.
Few details on the new charges against Cassady were available Thursday. Barry Paschal, a spokesman for the Southern Georgia U.S. attorney’s office, declined to answer questions including why Cassady allegedly targeted the Anchorage courthouse and how the bombs weren’t detected by guards at the Georgia prison.
The Anchorage Daily News reported in January 2020 that the FBI had taken possession of a suspicious package sent to the federal courthouse from out of state. No one was injured. FBI officials said at the time that the package was a “possible incendiary device,” and there was no link to terrorism, but didn’t mention any source or suspect.
Although federal courts typically try to bring defendants before a judge within a week, Paschal said the schedule for Cassady – now being held at Georgia’s Phillips State Prison in Buford – will likely be more relaxed.
“Because he’s already in a state facility. I don’t know that they’re going to have any great hurry to try to get him in front of a magistrate,” Paschal said.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
