THIRD GUILTY PLEA IN STOLEN EXPLOSIVES CASE

Man Admits to Bringing a Blowtorch to Cut
Through Locks to Steal Explosives 

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced  that Dean Joseph Utile, 42, pled guilty today to five felony counts resulting from his involvement in stealing explosive materials from law enforcement bunkers in San Mateo County.  Specifically, Mr. Utile pled guilty to the following charges without entering into a plea agreement: 

The Assistant U.S. Attorney provided the following information to the judge as a factual basis for the plea:

On the night of July 2, 2004, co-defendant Michael Allan met Mr. Utile at a storage unit in Hayward, where he and Mr. Utile stored explosives that Mr. Allan had stolen from law enforcement bunkers at the Skyline Quarry portion of the Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir area in San Mateo County.  Mr. Allan and Mr. Utile then decided to go back and get the rest of the explosives.  On the night of July 5, 2004, Mr. Allan and Mr. Utile returned to the bunkers.  They took a blow torch and an oxygen tank to make sure they could cut the remaining locks at the bunker.  They succeeded and took more explosives, this time loading them in a stolen van.  Determining that the Hayward storage unit was already too full of explosives, Mr. Utile called a friend and asked if he could use her storage locker in Oakland.  She agreed, and Mr. Allan and Mr. Utile unloaded the second van full of explosives into this unit.  The explosives Mr. Utile stole, possessed, and transported included C4, dynamite, detonating cord, fuses, grenades, and blasting caps.

Four men were charged in the original Indictment resulting from the theft of these explosives, and Mr. Utile is the third one of them to plead guilty.  In late September 2004, defendants Timothy Dean Byrd and Gregory Sherinian both pled guilty to possession of stolen explosives and being felons in possession of explosives.  The fourth man charged, Michael Allan, is due to appear before Judge Jensen on October 29, 2004.

The sentencing of Mr. Utile is scheduled for January 7, 2005, at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Jensen in Oakland.  Mr. Utile faces a maximum statutory penalty of 45 years imprisonment, $1,250,000 in fines, 15 years of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $500.  The actual sentence he receives, however, may be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be imposed at the discretion of the Court.

The prosecution is the result of an intensive investigation led by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and involving multiple federal, state, and local agencies.  Douglas Sprague is the Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting the case. 

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay3@usdoj.gov.