TERRE HAUTE —
A Terre Haute man faces a class-C felony charge of possession of a destructive device.
In a probable cause affidavit for arrest, Indiana State Police said Matthew Hay, 19, admitted to building an explosive device at his girlfriend’s house in Terre Haute when no one was home.
Police said in a probable cause affidavit that Hay found a prescription pill bottle and plastic cup in the trash, and that he obtained the explosive from fireworks that he previously bought. Hay, police said, placed the fireworks charge into the prescription bottle, fed a fuse through a hole drilled in the cup and shoved the bottle into the cup.
Hay is suspected of then having located flat washers and unused pop rivets from a shelf in a work area and attaching them to the cup for a shrapnel type of effect, according to the probable cause affidavit.
“You can’t just be making explosive devices like that,” said Robert E Roberts, Vigo County chief deputy prosecutor. “The amount of explosives in a number of legal fireworks, when you alter that, certainly can turn it from what it is legal to possess to an illegal explosive device.”
Hay, arrested Tuesday, appeared in Vigo County Superior Court Division 3 Wednesday to hear the charge against him. He was held in the Vigo County Jail on a $30,000 bail, with 10 percent allowed.
Police say Hay admitted that he gave the destructive device to a Brazil man, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Indiana State Police last month arrested Bobby J. Freeman, 47, of Brazil, who had been in custody at the Clay County Jail for a May 24 probation violation. Freeman was charged May 24 with a class-C felony of possession of a destructive device.
ISP detectives began receiving information on May 23 from a confidential source that Freeman was allegedly planning to obtain a “bomb,” according to Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts. Further investigation by detectives led them to Freeman’s residence on May 24 where they located the suspected device.
Police learned that Freeman had obtained the device from Hay, according to the probable cause affidavit. Freeman stated he intended to detonate the device in Illinois, as it was illegal to detonate it in Indiana, according to a probable cause affidavit.
A state police explosive ordnance team X-rayed the cup to determine its contents and rendered the device safe, Watts reports.
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
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Terre Haute man charged with possessing destructive device
State police found device at home of Brazil man
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