Former Goodwill Employee Sentenced to Federal Prison for Making an Incendiary Device

ALBUQUERQUE – Daniel Edward Aaron Morgan, 39, of Albuquerque, N.M., was sentenced this afternoon to a year and a day in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release for violating the federal firearms laws by unlawfully making an incendiary device.  Morgan also was ordered to pay $2,319.56 in restitution to Goodwill Industries of New Mexico (Goodwill), the victim of his criminal conduct.

Morgan entered a guilty plea to a felony information charging him with unlawfully making an incendiary device on Nov. 6, 2013.  In his plea agreement, Morgan admitted unlawfully making an incendiary device on Sept. 12, 2011.  Morgan was remanded into federal custody after entering his guilty plea and has been in custody since that time.

Court filings reflect that at the time Morgan committed the crime for which he was sentenced, he was a manager at Goodwill store in Albuquerque.  Morgan admitted embezzling money belonging to Goodwill which he was supposed to deposit at the night deposit box of a U.S. Bank branch in Albuquerque and using the money to gamble.  In an effort to conceal his embezzlement activity, Morgan set the Goodwill bank deposit bag on fire before placing it in the night deposit box of the U.S. Bank with the expectation that the bag would burn and Goodwill would not be able to learn that he failed to make the bank deposit.  Under federal law, Morgan’s actions constituted the manufacture of an incendiary device.  The device, however, did not have enough oxygen and flammable material to set the bank on fire.

This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI and the Albuquerque Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis E. Valencia.