REJECTED TEEN ACCUSED OF PLANTING BOMB UNDER HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND’S BED

The 18-year-old allegedly loaded a pressure cooker with nuts, bolts, and makeshift gunpowder, but it failed to detonate

By Drew Schwartz

VICE News
June 2, 2017

While many of us are guilty of committing acts of extreme desperation in the event of a breakup—like creepily climbing through an ex's window to leave a poem in their bedroom—one jilted teenager in New Mexico has been accused of leaving something much deadlier behind for his ex-girlfriend.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, the Department of Justice has accused 18-year-old Ethan Guillen of planting a homemade bomb under his ex-girlfriend's bed that, thankfully, failed to detonate. Authorities believe he snuck into her home on May 18, shoved a pressure cooker filled with nuts, bolts, and makeshift gunpowder under her bed, and tried to detonate it later that evening. According to the criminal complaint, Guillen then "waited up all night listening to a police scanner," hoping he'd hear news that his plan had worked.

For whatever reason, the device never went off, and his ex-girlfriend finally found it on Wednesday and notified the police. She told the investigators she thought it was likely Guillen who planted it, because they had broken up about a year before and he had been harassing her ever since.

He apparently still wasn't taking it well because when investigators showed up to Guillen's door, they found duct tape that matched some used on the device, as well as latex gloves and a table outside scorched with burn marks. Plus, investigators said, Guillen's father had recently purchased a pressure cooker and a soldering iron—both of which were missing.

Later, investigators said Guillen admitted to making the bomb and copped to planning the botched attack, the Journal reports.

"When Guillen was told that the room next to [the girl's] had small children and a baby in it, Guillen stated that he knew and did not care," the complaint alleges. "Guillen stated he just wanted [the girl] dead."

Guillen made his first appearance in court Thursday, and was scheduled for preliminary and sentencing hearings Friday. If found guilty, he could spend up to ten years in prison for possessing an unregistered destructive device.