Georgia state prison inmate indicted for making, mailing bombs to federal facilities

STATESBORO, GA:  A man serving a life term in a Georgia state prison has been indicted on multiple federal charges for constructing and mailing bombs to federal facilities.

David Cassady, 55, an inmate at Phillips State Prison in Buford, Ga., is charged with Making an Unregistered Destructive Device; two counts of Mailing a Destructive Device; and two counts of Attempted Malicious Use of an Explosive, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

There is no parole in the federal system.

“Protecting our personnel and facilities is a fundamental role of our office and of our law enforcement partners,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “We also will take action against inmates who seek to commit crimes and harm the public from behind bars.”

As described in the indictment returned by the April session of the Grand Jury in the Southern District of Georgia, Cassady was an inmate in the now-closed Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Ga., in Tattnall County, when he constructed destructive devices and mailed two of them via U.S. Mail to the United States Courthouse and Federal Building in Anchorage, Alaska, and to a federal facility at 1400 New York Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.

The indictment alleges the bombs were sent in an attempt “to maliciously damage or destroy, by means of fire or explosive, a building in whole or in part owned or possessed by, or leased to, the United States,” and “created substantial risk of injury to a person.”

Criminal indictments contain only charges; defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI Anchorage Office, Homeland Security Investigations Federal Protective Service, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Georgia Department of Corrections Office of Professional Standards, and Prosecuted for the United States of America by Southern District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Alexander Hamner.