Authorities Say Wrong Man Was Targeted In Blast Fatal Bombing In Grangeville Said To Be Practice Detonation

Authorities said a Grangeville man who died from an explosion in the back of his pickup truck was the unwitting victim of what was intended to be a threat to another man.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday against Robert Wayne Matthews says another man, Stacy Sessions, 22, of Grangeville, was the intended target of Matthews and a co-conspirator, Gary Lyn Gordon.

Instead, Stacey V. Calhoun, 28, suffered fatal injuries when a stick of dynamite blew up in the back of his pickup truck Saturday night and severed a major artery in his leg.

Gordon, 28, is facing felony first-degree murder charges in connection with the death. Matthews, 19, is charged with conspiracy to intimidate a witness and aiding and abetting aggravated arson, both felonies.

Idaho County Prosecutor Jeff P. Payne said Sessions was a witness during a drug-related preliminary hearing in November involving Billy B. Harris of Grangeville. Harris, along with six others, was arrested in October during a drug raid.

Sessions said he heard the rumor that he was the intended target shortly after the fatal explosion.

“I know some people got mad at me, but I don’t understand why any of this happened,” Sessions said.

The criminal complaint against Matthews says on Feb. 3, he and Gordon stole dynamite, blasting caps and fuses from the McKinley Mine near Lucile, where they had been working. The complaint says on Feb. 5, Matthews and Gordon discharged a stick of dynamite on State Highway 14 as a test. On Saturday, Gordon allegedly discharged another stick as a test in Calhoun’s pickup truck.

Gordon and Matthews apparently did not know Calhoun, police said.