SAN DIEGO : Bomb Maker Gets 10-Year Sentence

An Escondido man convicted of manufacturing--but not actually placing--a bomb that caused more than $43,000 in damage to the federal courthouse in 1990 was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.

David Kevin Cox, a 37-year-old plumber who was known to his friends as “Bomber Dave,” was convicted in March of two counts of manufacturing an explosive device and two counts of possessing an explosive device.

In an unusual decision, the jury that convicted Cox determined that he built the bomb detonated Sept. 15, 1990, but did not play a role in the scheme that damaged the downtown building.

U.S. District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster found that Cox had lied to federal agents, therefore obstructing justice, and had been responsible for much damage.

Cox will not begin serving his 10-year federal sentence until he finishes a four-year state prison term that he received last year for detonating a bomb under a cable television repairman who was disconnecting Cox’s house and for stabbing a neighbor’s dog that Cox said was the devil.