Suspect In Plot To Bomb Spokane Federal Building Denied Furlough

A federal prosecutor successfully blocked the release from jail of a man being investigated for a reported plot to blow up the federal building in Spokane.

Darwin Michael Gray, 27, asked to get out of jail for a three-day furlough, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks said he poses a threat to the public.

Gray is at the center of a continuing investigation of an alleged plot to use a fertilizer bomb to destroy the U.S. Court House at Riverside and Monroe, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks.

Gray, 27, pleaded guilty last month to growing marijuana and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The unemployed insulation installer faces a likely prison term when he is sentenced on Oct. 6.

Investigators found marijuana growing in Gray’s Spokane home after an informer told the FBI that Gray had talked about blowing up the federal building.

The alleged bombing plot came to light about a week after a 1,000-pound fertilizer bomb in a rental truck destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people.

No one has been charged in the alleged Spokane bombing plot.

Gray’s federal defender, Gerald Smith, asked U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle on Wednesday to release Gray from jail for a three- or four-day furlough.

The judge denied the request.

“My primary concern is, frankly, the danger to the community and other persons,” Van Sickle said.

The defense attorney sought the furlough so Gray could spend time with his newborn son and ailing grandparents.

But the prosecutor said the request was “totally unreasonable in light of the circumstances this defendant finds himself in.”

Hicks told the judge that investigators “have reason to believe this individual was involved in a plot to blow up this building with a fertilizer bomb.

“This individual is a very serious danger to this community,” Hicks told the court.

When authorities searched Gray’s home, they found bomb-making books, but no bomb components.

“This investigation is not closed,” Hicks said.

Smith argued that investigators have nothing to tie Gray to any bomb plot. He called Gray’s friend, Rick D. Plunkett, to testify.

Plunkett is identified in court documents as knowing about the alleged bomb plot.

He agreed to testify after he was advised by the judge that anything he said could be used against him in a criminal case.

Hicks told Plunkett that by testifying he also would be giving up his right to remain silent if called by a federal grand jury and questioned about the bombing plot.

Plunkett testified he had not talked with Gray about blowing up the federal building or about fertilizer bombs.

That contradicts what Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agents say in the sworn court documents. They interviewed Plunkett in May after the alleged plot was reported to the FBI.

Plunkett did testify that he made a fertilizer bomb in 1989 to blow up a tree stump.

Hicks later said that admission of bomb-making is just outside the five-year statute of limitation, which prevents the filing of criminal charges.

, DataTimes