Bungling bombers sentenced

By Matt Smith

msmith@trcle.com



A judge on Monday sentenced the three Burleson men convicted of attempting to ignite a bomb at a Burleson church last year.

Dayton Lee Calaway, 19; Michael Philip Plaisted Jr., 18; and Jered Michael Ragon, 18; pleaded guilty in December in District Judge Sam A. Lindsay’s U.S. District court in Dallas to a federal charge of possession of an unregistered firearm categorized as a destructive device, which in this case was a Molotov cocktail.

Lindsay sentenced Calaway to one year and one day in prison. Plaisted and Ragon received sentences of 15 months in jail. All three must serve three years of court-ordered supervision after their release, said Kathy Colvin, spokeswoman with the United States Attorney’s office. All three must report to begin serving their sentence by July 8, she said.

The trio faced sentencing possibilities of up to 10 years in jail and up to $10,000 in fines.

The three men, who described themselves as radical Christian activists, twice attempted to detonate a glass bottle containing a mixture of gasoline and chlorine at Victory Family Church on July 4, according to Burleson Police Department reports.

A church deacon interrupted their attempts, police said, and police found the bomb propped against the church door. The deacon, whose name has not been released, caught Calaway and Plaisted as they attempted to flee. Ragon escaped temporarily but was later arrested by police.

Attempts to reach the three men’s attorneys were unsuccessful.