Virginia man accused of storing 150 pipe bombs must remain in jail until trial, judge rules

NORFOLK, Va. — A Virginia man accused of store the largest amount of finished explosives in FBI history and using President Joe Biden’s photo for target practice must remain in jail until trial, a federal judge ruled, writing that he has “demonstrated a capacity for extreme danger.”

Brad Spafford, 36, is being held on a federal firearms charge for allegedly possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Prosecutors say he faces more potential charges for the explosives, including devices found in a backpack labeled “#nolivesmatter.”

Spafford, a father of two young daughters, also stored a highly unstable explosive material in a garage freezer along with “Hot Pockets and frozen corn on the cob,” according to court documents.

In a ruling Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen in Norfolk noted that Spafford lost three fingers in a homemade explosives accident in 2021, something she said her defense attorneys have not disputed.

“Mr. Spafford has specifically stated that he does not believe in government regulation when it comes to firearms, and willfully failed to comply with the requirements for registration of short-barreled rifles,” Allen wrote. “The Court is not confident that the Mr. Spafford be more respectful of the conditions of release imposed.”

Defense attorneys had argued that authorities have presented no evidence that Spafford was planning violence. They also noted that Spafford, who is married and has a steady job as a machinist, has no criminal record.

His attorneys also questioned whether explosive devices found on Spafford’s property were usable because “professionally trained explosives technicians had to manipulate the devices to detonate them.”

“There is not the slightest bit of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone and the claim that anyone could be in danger because of his political views and comments is nonsense,” his defense attorneys wrote in a statement. recent document.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Swartz said at Spafford’s detention hearing last week that investigators had collected information about him since January 2023, during which Spafford never threatened anyone.

“And what have you done during those two years?” Swartz said. “He bought a house. He has raised his children. He is in a great marriage. He has a fantastic job and all those things still exist for him.”

Investigators, however, said they had limited knowledge of the pipe bombs until the informant visited Spafford’s home, federal prosecutors wrote in a document Tuesday.

“But once the defendant stated in a recorded cable that he had an unstable primary explosive in the freezer in October 2024, the government acted quickly,” prosecutors wrote.

Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices when they searched Spafford’s Isle of Wight County home in December, prosecutors said in court documents.

Most of the bombs were found in a detached garage, along with bomb-making tools and materials, including fuses and pieces of plastic pipe, according to court documents.

“Several additional pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the bedroom of the house, completely unprotected,” in the home he shares with his wife and children, prosecutors also wrote.

The investigation began in 2023 when an informant told authorities that Spafford was storing guns and ammunition, according to court documents. The informant, a friend and member of law enforcement, told authorities that Spafford was using photographs of the president as target practice and that he “believed political assassinations should come back,” prosecutors wrote.

Numerous law enforcement officers and bomb technicians searched the property on December 17. Officers located the rifle and explosive devices, some of which had been manually labeled as “lethal” and others were loaded in a portable vest, according to court documents. state. Technicians detonated most of the devices at the site because they deemed them unsafe to transport, although several were preserved for analysis.

At a hearing last week, federal Judge Lawrence Leonard determined that Spafford could be released to house arrest at his mother’s home, but agreed to keep him detained while the government presents further arguments.

In response, prosecutors acknowledged that Spafford “has no knowledge of having engaged in any apparent violence.”

But they argued that Spafford “has certainly expressed interest in the same, through his manufacturing of homemade bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest loaded with homemade bombs, his support for political assassinations, and his use of photographs.” of the President for his target practice and his belief that “no lives matter.”

In Tuesday’s ruling, Allen wrote that the degree of danger Spafford posed to his own family and community was “extreme” and noted “the enormous scale of the enterprise.”

“The Court has not found a comparable case in terms of scale,” he wrote, “but even cases involving a smaller number of destructive devices and other factors that were positive for the defendant have resulted in detention.”