Man Charged in Pipe Bomb Case

June 18, 2010 - Larry Fairfax, 49, of Sagle, Idaho, was charged by complaint yesterday with the manufacture and possession of destructive devices. An initial court appearance was held on June 16, and the defendant was ordered temporarily detained by the presiding U.S. Magistrate Judge. A detention hearing has been set for June 21, 2010, at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. According to the affidavit filed with the complaint, Fairfax admitted that he had built two pipe bombs as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Also according to the affidavit, Fairfax admitted that he had been hired by Edgar Steele to kill Steele’s wife. Fairfax said he was instructed to put the device on the intended victim’s car and the other on Steele’s car. The plan was the device would explode and cause the wife’s car to crash and cause her death. The second pipe bomb was to be ignited under Steele’s car to provide an alibi or evidence that he was also targeted for murder.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and the North Idaho Violent Crime Task Force (NIVCTF). The NIVCTF consists of investigators representing the FBI, Idaho State Police, Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Shoshone County Sheriff's Office, Bonner County Sheriff's Office, Coeur d'Alene Police Department, Post Falls Police Department, and the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Police Department, and is tasked with investigating a myriad of violent crimes to include armed robbery, kidnapping, felonious assault and drug trafficking.

A criminal complaint is a means of charging a person with criminal activity. It is not evidence. The person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.