A man accused of setting off an explosive device outside a Colorado Springs NAACP office in January appeared Friday in federal court in Denver.
Thaddeus Murphy, 44, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of arson and being a felon in possession of firearms. Initially, federal and local investigators keyed in on an NAACP office in the building as the target in the Jan. 6 incident, but a criminal complaint against Murphy says an accountant who prepared his taxes in the past was the intended target.
He had to declare bankruptcy, the complaint said, and he was trying to get past tax records from the accountant, Steve DeHaven.
Murphy told investigators he could not reach DeHaven. The accountant died in Mesa, Ariz., on June 23.
“Murphy believed DeHaven destroyed his tax records,” according to the complaint. “Murphy stated that he ‘flipped out’ because of his financial problems.”
He appeared in court Friday wearing cutoff shorts, a white T-shirt and work boots without laces. He is being held without bail, pending an upcoming detention hearing scheduled Wednesday.
Murphy allegedly ignited a road flare and pipe bomb near a container of gasoline at 603 S. El Paso St. The criminal complaint said DeHaven worked out of the same building.
Henry D. Allen Jr., president of the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP, said he has worked at the organization’s office in the building since 1999 and is “not aware” of an accountant working in the small building.
The only other business in the building is Mr. G’s Hair Design Studios, Allen said. Gene H. Southerland owns the barber shop as well as the building.
Contacted by telephone Friday, Southerland declined to comment.
Prior to the incident, a sign on the side of the building advertised: “Income Tax.” The sign has since been removed.
“I’m glad someone was apprehended,” Allen said. “I’m very cautious about what the rationale was for this.”
A Colorado Springs tax accountant named Steven DeHaven was convicted of preparing false tax returns in federal court in Denver in 2010 and sentenced to three years in prison. Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Walsh, on Friday said the accountant was convicted in 2010 and the accountant Murphy refers to “appear to be one and the same.”
Murphy initially was connected to the incendiary device case by witnesses who described a white pickup truck with a dark hood fleeing the scene. A surveillance video from a nearby business captured images of the truck.
A Colorado Springs detective working on the case spotted a white pickup truck with a dark hood and wrote down the license plate number. Investigators followed the truck, which belongs to Murphy.
The device set off in January did not ignite the gasoline cannister when it was lit, but it still packed enough punch to knock items off office walls and charred the side of the building. No one was injured.
Duct tape was used in making the bomb, and investigators found brown dog hair on remnants of tape in the debris field. As investigators closed in on Murphy, they determined he owns a brown dog, the complaint said.
Federal agents served a search warrant on Murphy’s home and found seven firearms and incendiary devices similar to the one used at the building.
Murphy was found guilty of felony theft charges in El Paso County in 2009 and sentenced to five years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. In November, the Colorado Department of Revenue filed a distraint warrant — a document associated with overdue taxes — against Murphy.
If convicted in the arson case, Murphy faces a minimum of five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. On the firearms count, he faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
