Bethesda 19-Year-Old Admits in Court He Had Bomb Ingredients

A Bethesda teenager pleaded guilty to a felony explosives charge Wednesday, admitting that he had chemicals, switches and igniters in his bedroom that readily could be made into a bomb.

"We cannot know for certain what Collin McKenzie-Gude would have done if law enforcement had not acted," said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. "What we know for certain is that he made and exploded pipe bombs and had the components to build new explosive devices."

The plea was the latest step in a case that captured national attention last year after Montgomery County officials said a map of Camp David, marked with the presidential motorcade route, was also found in McKenzie-Gude's room.

At the plea hearing, federal prosecutors indicated that McKenzie-Gude, now 19, was planning to use the materials for "another felony offense." Prosecutors could detail what the plans were at McKenzie-Gude's sentencing hearing, set for Jan. 7.

Prosecutors are seeking at least five years in prison.

McKenzie-Gude also faces sentencing in a separate case in Montgomery County, based on his earlier guilty plea to attempted carjacking. A little more than a year ago, he attacked a 78-year-old man while trying to steal the man's Geo Prizm outside White Flint Mall on July 29, 2008, the same day officers searched his bedroom, according to authorities.

According to Wednesday's federal plea agreement, authorities found weapons (including an AR-15 rifle, AK-47 rifle and two shotguns), chemicals (including sodium nitrate, muriatic acid, thermite mix, acetone and potassium nitrate) and printed instructions to build an improvised rifle silencer.

McKenzie-Gude's attorney, Steven Kupferberg, who maintains that his client never intended to hurt anyone with the weapons or the chemicals, said Wednesday that the case took on a life of its own after Montgomery prosecutors exaggerated the importance of any kind of map found in McKenzie-Gude's bedroom and errantly said that officers also found a confidential directory of teachers at McKenzie-Gude's high school with some of the names highlighted.

Once those details got out, Kupferberg said, prosecutors felt compelled to act.

"I think the misinformation that came out originally about the presidential motorcade and the list of St. John's teachers caused it to be too sexy for them to do anything but this," Kupferberg said.

Seth Zucker, a spokesman for the Montgomery state's attorney's office, which initially prosecuted McKenzie-Gude on explosives and weapons charges, said McKenzie-Gude "is awaiting sentencing for very serious charges in both the state and federal courts. We will reserve comment for the appropriate time, which will be at sentencing, in front of a judge."

Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, which took over the case, declined to comment.

As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to drop two charges alleging that McKenzie-Gude manufactured fake federal IDs. But he acknowledged that such items were found in his bedroom, according to court records.

Officers found "a fake or simulated Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) identification access badge (and) a fake or simulated United States Government Geneva Conventions Identification Card, known as a Common Access Card," according to the plea agreement. Both cards featured photographs of McKenzie-Gude, prosecutors said.