United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

Three Weatherford, Texas, Men Sentenced for Stealing
Dynamite from Plant in Parker County

Two Were Former Employees of Fort Worth Crushed Stone Plant in Parker County

United States Attorney Richard B. Roper announced that three Weatherford, Texas, residents, Bryan Newsom, age 22, Brett Garrett, age 19, and James Hardin, age 18, were sentenced Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, by the Honorable John McBryde, United States District Judge, for their role in the theft of dynamite from the Fort Worth Crushed Stone Plant in Weatherford on January 23, 2006.

Newsom was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment; Garrett was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment; and Hardin was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment. Judge McBryde departed upward from the United States Sentencing Guidelines for each defendant. Defendant Hardin, who had been on bond, was taken into custody. Defendants Newsom and Garrett have been in custody since their arrest.

According to documents filed in Court, on Sunday, January 22, 2006, Brett Garrett and James Hardin decided to steal explosives from the Fort Worth Crushed Stone company, located at 4313 Bethel Road in Weatherford, Texas, where Garrett had previously been employed as a scraper and dump truck operator. Garrett and Hardin called Newsom and told him what they planned to do, and asked for a cutting torch to cut through the locks on the explosives magazines. Newsom agreed to get one for them. On January 22, 2006, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Garrett and Hardin drove to Newsom’s house to pick up the cutting torch, where the three decided that Newsom would drive Garrett and Hardin to the plant and drop them off at the front entry gate.

The men arrived at the plant shortly before midnight on Sunday, January 22, 2006. Newsom dropped Garrett and Hardin off at the front entrance gate of the plant. Garrett and Hardin then went to the explosives magazines and cut the locks from two of the three magazines with the cutting torch. Once Garrett and Hardin got into the explosives magazine, they dumped approximately 33.61 pounds or approximately eight sticks of 2 3/4 inch by 16 inch Dyno Nobel, Blastex Slurran Emulsion into a trash bag. Garrett and Hardin also opened a box and took 28.5 pounds of explosive material that is approximately 95 sticks of 1 1/8 inch by 8 inch Dyno Nobel AP Emulsion. Hardin and Garrett removed the interior bag containing the explosive material from the box, and placed the bag of explosives inside the trash bag. Garrett and Hardin then gained entry into the magazine or “cat house” that contained the blasting caps, where they took a full box of non-electric blasting caps. Garrett and Hardin carried the explosives back to the highway where Newsom was waiting to pick them up. The stolen explosive material was loaded into Newsom’s truck and the three men agreed to hide the explosives at Newsom’s residence

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recovered all the stolen material.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Parker County Sheriff's Department, the Weatherford Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety - Texas Rangers. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Worley.