Solano County man convicted for pipe bomb explosion at brother’s home, prosecutors say
A Solano County man has been convicted after offering to pay two men $10,000 each to plant pipe bombs at his brother’s Suisun City home, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
Thomas Wayne Capenhurst of Dixon pleaded guilty Monday to charges of criminal conspiracy and malicious use of explosive materials.
The case against Capenhurst’s co-defendant, Robert McGraw, is still pending, and he is scheduled to return to federal court Oct. 5. Federal prosecutors said Capenhurst offered $10,000 each to McGraw and another man.
Shortly before 1 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2018, McGraw walked to the front door of the brother’s home on Blue Jay Drive in Suisun City and set one of the pipe bombs on the front porch, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. McGraw lit the fuse and then ran, prosecutors said.
The pipe bomb detonated and blew the front door off its hinges. Prosecutors said pieces of metal shrapnel were lodged in the home’s exterior walls and nearby windows were broken. The family of five was inside the home when the bomb exploded. They had just returned from a Bay Area trip.
A dispute between Capenhurst and his older brother’s wife led to the bomb explosion, federal agents say. Capenhurst was upset at her for “snitching on him” in a Benicia police investigation into a child abuse or neglect case involving his 14-year-old daughter, according to an affidavit filed by an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Capenhurst, 33, faces a sentence of five to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for malicious use of explosive materials, according to prosecutors. He also faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge.
Capenhurst is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimberley J. Mueller on Jan. 4.
