Ex-Husband in Bombing Case Wrote Will: Police

A Fort Worth real estate broker was ordered jailed without bond Thursday as prosecutors revealed more details about a bizarre plot to bomb his former wife’s Colleyville home.

David Barouch, 51, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Tarrant County jail on a federal charge of possessing an explosive device.

Agents said they found a will and last testament that was dated May 2 -- the same day his former wife found the bomb on her front porch -- during a search of his north Fort Worth home.

According to the criminal complaint, agents also found packing tape and projectiles similar to those used in the bomb, handwritten notes on how to make an explosive device and a suitcase packed with clothes.

The suitcase had a note on it addressed to police, which said, "Detectives, I was not planning on leaving. This is from the cruise I just took."

In a brief court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey Cureton, Barouch said he understood the charges against him.

The judge ordered Barouch jailed until a detention hearing on Tuesday.

His court-appointed federal public defender, Matt Belcher, said the two had not had a chance to discuss the case and it was too early to know how Barouch would plead.

Prosecutors say Barouch was angry over financial matters related to his divorce, which was finalized about three years ago.

"Clearly it was a tumultuous post-divorce situation," said assistant U.S. attorney Bret Helmer. "And he certainly chose the wrong way to deal with it."

A search warrant for Barouch’s house was released Wednesday. (Read the complete search warrant here.)

The warrant said he made the device out of three pounds of explosive powder, a battery, an electrical circuit and a “fragment in the form of 9 mm projectiles."

The device was enclosed in two wooden salad bowls that were taped together and placed inside a FedEx package, said an agent with the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The return label on the box said “Salad Sweepstakes” with a Houston address, the agent said.

The man’s former wife told agents she frequently entered contests and didn’t think twice about opening the package.

Investigators traced the salad bowls to a specific store and obtained surveillance video of Baurouch buying them, the agent said. The bowls were unique and only sold by Bed, Bath and Beyond, the document said. Agents researched sales records and found that only one customer had recently bought two of the bowls, according to the warrant.

Agents arrived at Baurouch’s home in the 5200 block of Selago Drive on Wednesday morning and searched it during the entire day.

Neighbors said he had lived there for about five years and always seemed to be in a bad mood.

“(He was) not friendly at all,” said neighbor Stephanie Frazier. “To be honest, what he’s charged with, that does surprise me. That’s premeditated. That’s severe… I didn’t think he was that angry.”

Police said investigators followed a number of leads in a short amount of time.

"I'd like to point out that we take this crime very seriously in our community," Colleyville Police Chief Steve Dye said following the arrest. "We expended all resources toward the effort."

ATF agent Tom Crowley said great caution was taken during the search because of the potentially explosive nature of the evidence.

"Because of the nature of the investigation, we were taking the utmost precaution when we were executing the search warrant just for safety," he said. "We had a large presence. We had the special response team from ATF along with ATF explosive agents."

A bomb squad used a water cannon to disarm the device, which was described by ATF agents as "a serious bomb that could have caused some serious harm.”
 

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