ALEXANDRIA, La.— Daniel Aikens, 40, of Alexandria, Louisiana, was convicted of 8 counts of illegal explosive related charges, announced by United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown.
The jury found Aikens guilty of 3 counts of Making a Destructive Device, 3 counts of Possession of a Destructive Device in violation of the NFA, 1 count of Use of an Explosive to Commit a Federal Felony and 1 count of Conveying Malicious False Information and will be sentenced by Senior District Judge Dee D. Drell on March 3, 2023.
“What this investigation shows is that when federal, state and local law enforcement partners collaborate to investigate heinous criminal activity, justice is more often than not inevitable. This is an extremely dangerous individual and we are fortunate more persons were not injured. All the investigators at every level, talented prosecutors and the courageous victims and witnesses who faced Aikens in court, played a vital role in helping us obtain this conviction. The Western District of Louisiana is truly a safer place today due to this guilty verdict and given Aikens’ actions, coupled with his failure to accept responsibility, we will indeed seek a lengthy prison sentence.”
When arresting Aikens, agents secured his cellular telephone and discovered that he had been communicating with a friend via text message concerning the Monroe bombing. Agents later interviewed this friend and the friend stated that Aikens communicated with him after the Monroe and Texaco bombings, further stating that Aikens called him on the morning of the explosion from is personal cell phone and allowed him to listen in as he called Payday Today from the “bomb phone.”
According to authorities, forensic examination of Aikens’ personal cell phone revealed Google Street View images of the Ferrand Street area near Cloyd’s Beauty School in Monroe, Louisiana. The phone’s web history showed a search for “how to build a pressure cooker bomb” and included a possible pdf download.
A piece of black electrical tape was recovered from the pressure cooker device and found to contain a mixture of a known DNA profile found to be 1 trillion times more likely to have originated from Aikens.
Cell phone and 911 records confirmed that the “bomb phone” was also used to call emergency services during the Texaco explosion on December 20, 2019. The 911 recording depicts a male caller (who law enforcement identified as Aikens) advising that he was passing by, there was an explosion, and requests law enforcement.
Location data from Aikens’ personal phone showed that he frequented several stores in Lafayette, Louisiana, the day before the Texaco explosion.
KATC reported on the December 2019 explosion incident in the headline link below:
Alexandria man accused of threatening to bomb business
Specifically, the data from Aikens' personal phone showed Aikens making stops near Home Depot, Academy Sporting Goods and Hobby Lobby. Surveillance video from Home Depot showed Aikens’ entering the store at 12:33pm. Twenty-three minutes later, he purchased a drill bit, two metal pipe caps, a steel pipe and adhesive.
Aikens’ cell phone was then located near Academy Sporting Goods a short time later. Agents reviewed sales receipts around the time that Aikens was in the store. They located a sales receipt at 1:39pm for 2lbs. of Hodgdon H335, Rifle Powder. Included in that same purchase were two children’s fishing rod and reel combos and a lady’s rod and reel combo.
All three fishing combos were later collected from Aikens’ girlfriend who advised that she and her two children had received the fishing equipment as Christmas gifts from Aikens.
Aikens then traveled to the nearby Hobby Lobby. A review of the December 19, 2019, surveillance video showed Aikens purchasing what appears to be rocket motor starters.
Aikens returned to the store on December 21, 2019, and made another purchase identical to the one on December 19.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), FBI, Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, Alexandria Police Department, U.S. Marshal’s Service, Louisiana State Police and the Alexandria Fire Department investigated the case, with the assistance of the Alexandria Public Safety Commissioner and the City of Alexandria Mayor’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Jamilla A. Bynog, LaDonte A. Murphy and Daniel J. McCoy are prosecuting the case.
