• Clayton Alexander McCoy pleads guilty to federal charges that carry up to 30 years in prison.
• He was rejected by the victim’s boyfriend and built a bomb to kill him, prosecutors say.
• The victim spent two weeks in a walker and needed multiple operations after the blast.

An Ohio man who tried to kill a woman’s boyfriend with a homemade bomb hidden in a gift box. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges carrying up to 30 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

The victim of the Oct. 30, 2020, explosion at a Maryland home survived, but he spent two weeks in a walker, required multiple operations. And still has shrapnel in his body, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.

Prosecutors said Clayton Alexander McCoy, 32, pleaded guilty to one count each of transporting explosives with intent to injure and possession of an unregistered firearm/explosive device.

According to the prosecutor’s office, he was rejected by the victim’s girlfriend and then built the homemade bomb and delivered it to the boyfriend’s home in Carroll County in order to kill him.

A federal public defender listed as representing McCoy did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

According to court documents, the homemade bomb was a pipe filled with shrapnel such as ball bearings and other metal fragments.

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Officials said the bomb was in a gift box with a red ribbon tied around it, and it was placed inside a cardboard box left on the victim’s front porch. When you opened it, it exploded.

According to court documents, the victim opened the box in a bedroom, and no one else was hurt in the explosion. Prosecutors said the blast caused more than $46,000 in damage and forced the victim and his grandparents to leave their home for months.

According to court documents, the three knew each other through the Dagorhir live-action role-playing battle game community.

Around two weeks before the explosion, McCoy told the woman he had feelings for her, but she said she didn’t and that she was in a relationship with the victim, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in a criminal complaint filed in the case.

According to authorities, McCoy drove seven hours to the victim’s home to plant the bomb. Carroll County, northwest of Baltimore, is about 350 miles from McCoy’s home in Chesterland, east of Cleveland.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, the maximum sentence for transporting explosives is 20 years, and the maximum sentence for possession is 10 years.

A sentencing date has not been set.

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