BALTIMORE, Md. (HPD) — An Ohio man who seriously injured a Maryland love rival has pleaded guilty to violating federal gun laws after leaving a homemade explosive device in a gift-wrapped box. at the front door of the victim’s house
Clayton Alexander McCoy, 32, of Chesterland, Ohio, pleaded guilty in Baltimore Wednesday to transporting explosives with intent to cause injury and possession of an unregistered explosive device in connection with the explosion at the victim’s home. in Carroll County, Maryland. The sentence can be up to 30 years in prison.
McCoy pleaded guilty to making an explosive pipe at his home in Ohio and taking it to the victim’s home with the intent to kill him, US Attorney Erek Barron said in a news release. McCoy knew the victim and his girlfriend through a role-playing war game called Dagorhir, according to court documents.
In October 2020, McCoy expressed loving feelings to the woman, who informed him that she was in a relationship and did not share those feelings, prosecutors said. McCoy concocted a plan to fabricate and deliver a bomb to the woman’s boyfriend to eliminate him as a rival for her love interest, prosecutors said.
McCoy took the shrapnel device to the man’s home and left it in a gift-wrapped box in front of the driveway. When the man opened the box, the device exploded, seriously injuring him.
The victim spent more than two weeks in hospital, had to use a walker and underwent several operations to remove the shrapnel from his body.
Federal public defender attorneys who represented McCoy did not respond to requests for comment.