Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.   In a Change of Plea hearing at the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, David Ansberry changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on Tuesday, June 18, 2017. The plea was accepted by Judge Christine Archuleta.

Ansberry had been charged with: knowingly using and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against a person and property within the United States and the use of that weapon against interstate and foreign commerce, in an activity that affected interstate commerce, being in a mall, and that the defendant traveled in interstate and foreign commerce and the result of the offense, if completed, would have affected interstate and foreign commerce.

Ansberry had filed a notice of intent to plead guilty on July 6 and informed the court of his intent to plead guilty. The change of plea document states that there is no plea agreement in this case, there are no promises, agreements or concessions by either side regarding the sentence to be imposed. Both defense and plaintiff reserve the right to present evidence relevant to the Court’s formulation of an appropriate sentence.

The Statutory penalties are any term of years up to life imprisonment, not more than a $250,000 fine, or both.

The court will look at the pre-sentence investigation data and other relevant information to determine the sentence, which will be determined on November 10, 2017.

On the morning of October 11, 2016, a Nederland Police Department detective showed up for work and found a backpack a few feet in front of the PD door. The department is next to the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center, which hosts children’s programs and begins at 8 a.m. The PD also shares mall space with various businesses, including the local grocery store.

The detective thought the backpack was perhaps found by a resident and left in front of the door. It has happened before. He brought the bag inside and, looking for identification of the owner, opened it to discover a cell phone with wires connected to a battery and bags of suspicious powder. He immediately recognized it as an improvised explosive device and carried the backpack into the parking lot. He then evacuated the building and called in the bomb squad.

Within minutes, the shopping center was shut down and everyone was told to leave. When the Boulder County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad arrived, a robot was sent across the parking lot to remove pieces of the bomb and the cell phone detonator. Then the phone was placed in a box that would prevent a cell phone signal from reaching it. The phone number was identified as well as the number of another phone that was used to dial the detonator phone multiple times in an attempt to detonate the bomb.

The Nederland Fire Protection District and the PD had cordoned off the mall by this time, and around 1:30 a.m., the bomb was safely detonated by the bomb squad.

Investigators learned that the cell phones involved were purchased from King Soopers, one in Longmont and one in Denver. Surveillance cameras show Ansberry making the purchases.

It was learned that Ansberry had been staying at the Boulder Creek Lodge, across from the shopping center, and had been evacuated with the other guests of the lodge. Witnesses remember seeing him walk around the perimeters of the shopping center, watching the action. The lodge called a car service to take Ansberry away, leaving the town, his mission foiled.

On October 16, he boarded a flight whose destination was Baltimore, MD, with a stop in Chicago’s Midway Airport. When he stepped off the plane in Chicago he was arrested. During a search of his luggage, agents found STP Oil decals. They had also found similar STP decals in the laundromat window next to the Nederland Police Department, which had the words, “RIP Deputy Dawg, 7-17-71.

The decals led investigators to a possible motive for the attempted bombing.

Deputy Dawg, Guy Goughnor and Ansberry were members of the STP Family camping out north of Nederland. STP stood for Serenity, Tranquility and Peace, but a few of the members were anything but peaceful. Deputy Dawg was known for several incidents involving physical altercations at local bars. He caused enough trouble for local Marshal Renner Forbes that he became a target.

One night, in 1971, Goughnor was at the Pioneer Inn drinking when Forbes came in and offered him a ride home. That was the last time anyone saw the young man alive. On July 17, his body was discovered in Clear Creek County by a road worker. Townspeople accused Forbes of the murder, but nobody ever came up with enough evidence to charge the marshal. The case was never solved, and it wasn’t forgotten.

In 1998, a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office detective, admitting his mother to an assisted living home, saw Renner Forbes name on a door. Following a hunch, he talked to the former marshal who was now in a wheelchair. Forbes ended up confessing to killing Goughner, recounting how he took him to the STP campground and shot him. He was convicted of the crime and because of his health problems was sentenced to in house incarceration for the rest of his life.

Ansberry was a friend of Deputy Dawg and investigators concluded that he had placed the explosive device at the door of the Ned PD in retaliation for his friend’s murder.

Ansberry had left California and stopped in Idaho where he purchased the toxic tablets from Murdoch’s Home and Ranch Supply in Salmon, Idaho on July 20th.

The IED in the back pack consisted of a cell phone, a silicon control rectifier attached by wire to a 9-volt batters, powders, and a Mason jar filled with a small, automotive light bulb and HMTD, Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine. Four ziplock bags of powder proved to be explosive material. The bomb was capable of destroying the PD as well as damaging adjoining businesses.

The sentencing range is 360 months to life.

The Memorandum in Advance of Change of Plea was submitted by Robert C. Troyer, Acting United States Attorney, Greg Holloway, Assistant US Attorney and Mara M. Kohn, Trial Attorney for the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division.