An ex-employee of Home Depot, who was convicted of planting a pipe bomb at some of the suburban stores of the chain in New York, was awarded more than 30-year jail term in the federal prison for threatening to set off the bombs while trying to extort USD 2 million from the company.
US District Judge Denis Hurley in Central Islip, New York sentenced 52-year-old Daniel Sheehan, of Deer Park, for over 30 years after being convicted in the year 2013 of threatening to explode the pipe bombs a day after one of the busiest shopping event, called Thanksgiving Day, the previous year, his trial attorney Leonard Lato said on Saturday.
Sheehan spoke in his defense before his sentencing on Friday, saying no one was hurt in the incident. He also said that the plan was abandoned before his arrest on Long Island in 2012.
Meanwhile, the federal prosecutors said Sheehan had set a bomb in a Home Depot store in Huntington and then has anonymously warned that the devices would be detonated in three other stores of the chain on Black Friday if the company fails to pay the money.
Sheehan’s attorney argued the device found at the Huntington store was not actually a bomb as no trigger was attached to it.
The police found the pipe bomb and detonated it.
In 2013, Sheehan was convicted of multiple charges.