NORFOLK, Va. — A virginia man charged with to store the largest number of spent explosives in the FBI’s history and use of President Joe Biden’s photo for target practice should 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 possible charges related to the explosives, including devices found in a backpack labeled “#nolivesmatter.”
Spafford, the father of two young daughters, also stored highly unstable explosive material in a garage freezer next to “Hot Pockets and frozen corn on the cob,” according to court documents.
In a ruling late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen in Norfolk noted that Spafford lost three fingers in a 2021 accident involving homemade explosives, something she said his lawyers did not dispute.
“Mr. Spafford has specifically stated that he does not believe in government regulation when it comes to firearms, and he has deliberately ignored the registration requirements for short-barreled rifles,” Allen wrote. “The Court has no confidence that Mr. Spafford would have greater respect for the conditions of release imposed.”
Defense attorneys had argued that authorities provided no evidence that Spafford planned violence. They also noted that Spafford, who is married and has a steady job as a machinist, has no criminal record.
His lawyers also questioned whether the explosives found on Spafford’s property were useful because “professionally trained explosives technicians had to manipulate the devices to detonate them.”
“There is not a shred 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 nonsensical,” his lawyers wrote in a recent filing.
Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices in December when they searched the Spafford home in Isle of Wight County, prosecutors said in court filings.
According to court documents, most of the bombs were found in a detached garage, along with bomb-making tools and materials, including fuses and lengths of plastic pipe.
“Several additional apparent pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the bedroom of the home, completely unsecured,” prosecutors also wrote.
The investigation began in 2023 when an informant told authorities that Spafford was stockpiling guns and ammunition, court documents show. The informant, a friend and member of law enforcement, told authorities that Spafford used photos of the president for target practice and that “he believed political killings should come back,” prosecutors wrote.
Numerous law enforcement officers and bomb technicians searched the property on December 17. Officers found the gun and explosives, some of which were hand-labeled “lethal” and some of which were loaded into a portable vest, court documents state. Technicians detonated most of the devices on site because they were deemed unsafe to transport, although several were retained for analysis.
At a hearing last week, Federal Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard ruled that Spafford could be released under house arrest at his mother’s home, but agreed to keep him held while the government makes further arguments.
In response, prosecutors acknowledged that Spafford “is not known to have engaged in any apparent violence.”
But they argued that Spafford “certainly has shown interest in the same thing, through his manufacture of pipe bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest packed with pipe bombs, his support for political assassinations and use of the photographs of the President for target practice, and his belief that ‘no life matters’.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Allen wrote that the level of danger Spafford posed to his own family and community was “extreme” and noted “the enormous scale of the undertaking.”
“The Court has not found a comparable case in terms of magnitude,” she wrote, “but even cases involving smaller numbers of destructive devices and other factors positive for the suspect have resulted in detention.”