(Reuters) - A 64-year-old man was indicted for allegedly planting an improvised explosive device that failed to detonate outside a small-town Colorado police station, court records show.
David Michael Ansberry faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on the federal charge of using a weapon of mass destruction.
On Oct. 11 a detective found a backpack containing a cell phone connected to a battery and a suspicious powder outside the Nederland, Colorado, police station.
The five-officer police station was evacuated, along with neighboring businesses in Nederland, a mountain community of less than 2,000 people about 14 miles southwest of Boulder.
FBI agents were able to track the cell phone and obtain surveillance video of its purchase. The video showed a 3-foot 6-inch (107 cm) man with a ponytail wearing a baseball hat and on crutches buying the phone with cash. Authorities say the person in the videos is Ansberry.
Records also showed that Ansberry stayed at a Nederland motel the night of the attempted bombing.
He was taken into custody in Chicago days after the attempted bombing and initially charged in a criminal complaint with attempted destruction of a building or property by means of fire or explosive.
The indictment does not offer a motive for the crime.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Trott)
