Guilty Plea Entered By Homemade Bomb Suspect

Bradley Back is accused of possessing a bomb which exploded in his own West Harrison home in 2017.

Bradley C. Back. Photo by Dearborn County Sheriff's Department.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) - A guilty plea has been reached by a former West Harrison resident who had a homemade bomb explode in his own home.

Bradley C. Back, 31, was charged in April 2017 after the bomb went off in his home on Ledgestone Drive. Prosecutors said the device was in a gift bag and may have been intended for Back’s ex-girlfriend, whom he had just broken up with.

A change of plea hearing was held in Dearborn Superior Court I on Thursday. Back pleaded guilty to a single charge of Possession of a Destructive Device or Explosive with Knowledge or Intent that it be Used to Kill (level 2 felony).

Three other charges will be dismissed: two counts of Manufacturing a Destructive Device (level 5 felony) and a single county of Criminal Recklessness (level 6 felony).

Back’s case had been scheduled to go to a jury trial in October.

The plea agreement caps Back’s sentence at 15 years. The sentencing will be at the sole discretion of Judge Jonathan Cleary, who has ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Back has been free on bond since June of 2017.

A sentencing hearing is set for November 30, but could be delayed pending further testing of the bomb remnants by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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