Superior Court sentences Taylor to 156 to 200 months confinement

AVERY COUNTY — Thomas Dewey Taylor, Jr., 45, of Newland was sentenced in Superior Court on Thursday, July 18, to a minimum of 156 months and a maximum of 200 months in confinement by Judge Gregory Horne, according to court documents.

The charges were issued after previously being sentenced in a federal court to 97 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for making a destructive device and related offenses, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Taylor previously pleaded guilty to attempting to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce by fire and explosive, possession of an unregistered National Firearms Act weapon, and making a destructive device.

According to court records, previous reporting by The Avery Journal-Times and the May 30 sentencing hearing, Taylor was a former employee of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, Inc. (GMHG), located in Linville, NC. On Sept. 27, 2021, Taylor disabled the alarm system to the GMHG office, turned off the main power breaker, and hid a destructive device in an office closet. The destructive device consisted of a 48-quart cooler housing fuses bundled together and tied to an electric burner hotplate. The fuses ran to fireworks and containers of ignitable liquids. The hotplate was plugged into an extension cord which was plugged into an electrical receptacle in the closet. Also inside the cooler was a glass pitcher with rocks and a PVC pipe bomb.

Court records state that the destructive device was constructed so it would ignite once someone turned on the main power breaker, resulting in an explosion designed to cause property damage, injury, and death to persons nearby.

In Superior Court, Taylor was charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder, two counts of obtaining property false pretense, and seven counts of financial card fraud. Additionally, the defendant was ordered not to be in direct or indirect contact with any of the victims involved in the incident of which he was charged on Sept. 27, 2021, to include the Parson and Warburton families, GMHG President Stephen Quillin, as well as anyone associated with Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.