Man blew hand off seeking revenge on ‘hot cheerleaders’, feds say. He’s going to prison
A 24-year-old Virginia man who authorities say blew off his hand when a homemade bomb exploded as he sought revenge against “hot cheerleaders” will serve 7 years in prison, a judge has ruled.
Cole Carini of Richlands pleaded guilty in January to a charge of possessing and manufacturing an unregistered explosive device, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.
Police and federal investigators say they arrested Carini in June 2020 after he turned up at a hospital with serious injuries that cost him his hand, McClatchy News reported. He also had shrapnel wounds to his face and throat.
Carini initially told investigators he’d been injured when a lawnmower overturned and exploded, but police said they found no signs his overgrown lawn had been mowed recently.
Following a trail of blood from the driveway to Carini’s bedroom, police instead say they found evidence of a bloody explosion along with a box of rusty nails, McClatchy News reported.
Investigators found other bomb-making materials in a shed, police said, along with a note in which Carini fantasized about blowing up a stage full of “hot cheerleaders” at a mall.
The note also expressed admiration for a self-described “incel” who killed six people and injured 14 others in California in 2014, an affidavit said.
Incels, shorthand for “involuntarily celibate,” hate women for rejecting them as sexual partners, according to The New York Post.
“When he stockpiled bomb-making materials and actually designed and manufactured an improvised explosive device designed to cause significant harm, the defendant put the safety of the community at risk and committed a serious federal crime,” acting U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Bubar said in a statement after Carini’s sentencing Wednesday.
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Man blew hand off seeking revenge on ‘hot cheerleaders’, feds say. He’s going to prison."