Margate Man Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison On Charges He Made And Possessed A Pipe Bomb

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Hugo J. Barrera, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Office, and Ric Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, announce that Richard A. Heyn, 49, of Margate, was sentenced to 120 months in prison and three years of supervised release following his conviction in February on charges that he made and possessed an unregistered destructive device.

According to court records and evidence at trial, Heyn made and possessed a pipe bomb in August 2011, which he camouflaged with black spray paint and attached to the under carriage of the SUV driven by a man living Boca Raton. At the time, Heyn had had a two year long extramarital affair with the man’s wife, which affair the wife was attempting to end.

During the seven day trial, evidence was presented which linked Heyn to the components used in the pipe bomb. In addition, explosives experts from ATF testified that the pipe bomb found on the husband’s vehicle had all the components of a destructive device, capable of creating a “small cratering in the road” and serious physical injury or even death to those in the vicinity of the explosion.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts ATF and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Ferrer also thanked the Computer Crime Laboratory of the Department of Justice for their assistance in analyzing computer evidence. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aurora Fagan and Alexandra Hui

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.