Inmate serving life sentence in Georgia sent bombs to Alaska courthouse, charges say

A man serving a life sentence in a Georgia prison was indicted this week on federal charges accusing him of making and mailing bombs to federal courthouses in Anchorage and in Washington, D.C.

David Cassady, 55, was incarcerated at a now-closed state prison in Reidsville, Georgia, when he mailed the bombs in January of 2020, the indictment said. He made the explosives at some time during the four months prior, it said. The indictment does not describe how Cassady was able to make and send a bomb from inside a maximum-security prison.

It was not clear from the indictment why Cassady targeted the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse in downtown Anchorage or a federal facility in Washington, D.C. It also wasn’t apparent if Cassady has any ties to Alaska.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said he could not provide information beyond what was disclosed in the indictment.

The Anchorage Police Department’s bomb squad and FBI bomb technicians responded to the courthouse on January 2020 for a report of a suspicious package. An FBI spokesman said at the time that a package mailed from out of state contained “a possible incendiary device, but not an improvised explosive device.”

Cassady has been incarcerated since 1993 on kidnapping and sexual assault charges, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. While in custody, he was also convicted of gang participation, making false statements to the government and terroristic threats and acts.

Cassady is currently an inmate at Phillips State Prison in Buford, Georgia.