DOJ Seal

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney's Office
District of Maryland

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Rod J. Rosenstein
, United States Attorney
Contact: Marcia A. Murphy

Silver Spring Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Federal Prison for Throwing Molotov Cocktails at Residence in Upper Marlboro

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel sentenced Damien Travis Boddy, age 35, of Silver Spring, Maryland, late on October 3, 2016, to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for possession of an unregistered firearm and to transportation of explosive material with the intent to injure, kill or intimidate.

The sentence 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.

"Our public safety team effort was critical to the closure and conviction in this case. Our residents can rest safer today with the sentence handed down by Judge Hazel," said 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. Luckily, 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.

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 Michael T. Packard, Erin B. Pulice, and Daniel C. Gardner, who prosecuted the case.

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Baltimore Field Division