Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Greenbelt, Maryland – Damien Travis Boddy, age 35, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to possession of an unregistered firearm and to transportation of explosive material with the intent to injure, kill or intimidate.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Daniel L. Board Jr. of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Baltimore Field Division; Chief Hank Stawinski of the Prince George’s County Police Department; and Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Marc S. Bashoor.

According to his plea agreement, in the early morning hours of October 19, 2014, Boddy drove to a gas station in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and filled several empty beer bottles with gasoline. Boddy placed the bottles in his car and drove to a residence in Upper Marlboro. Using protective gloves and a lighter, Boddy set fire to at least two of the bottles filled with gasoline and threw the lit bottles at the residence. The lit bottles, which qualify as explosives, struck a window on the first floor and ignited a small fire on the exterior of the residence. The bottles did not penetrate to the interior of the residence and the fire was confined to the exterior of the window and shrubbery. Members of the Prince George’s County Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire. Fire investigators subsequently recovered the remnants of one of the gas filled beer bottles near the residence, gas residue on the window, and an intact gas-filled beer bottle on the sidewalk adjacent to the residence.

Members of the Prince George’s County Police Department encountered Boddy in his vehicle a short distance from the residence. Officers discovered a beer bottle filled with gasoline in the vehicle’s cup holder, a lighter, protective gloves and paperwork from the gas station where Boddy filled the beer bottles.

Boddy knew the owner of the residence and in previous years had set fire to a car parked at the victim’s residence, and had contacted the victim’s employer and threatened to kill the victim.

Boddy and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreement Boddy will be sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled sentencing for October 3, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the ATF, Prince George’s County Police Department and Prince George’s County Fire/EMS for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel C. Gardner, Michael T. Packard, and Erin B. Pulice, who are prosecuting the case.

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