Wood Dale man gets 9 years for explosives, child porn
A Wood Dale man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing child pornography and explosives.
Bryan Roehr, 25, was sentenced by DuPage County Judge George Bakalis on Monday after pleading guilty in September to both offenses.
Roehr came under investigation in August 2011 after a Bloomingdale woman told police he threatened to put a bomb in her 2-year-old son’s bedroom if she didn’t pay a drug debt.
“You know I have explosives,” he wrote in a text message, according to prosecutors.
A police search of his home on the 200 block of North Oakland Drive uncovered a stockpile of potassium perchlorate, aluminum powder, cardboard tubes, canon fuses and other bomb-making materials. Authorities also seized a computer Roehr had used to study bombmaking and view child pornography, prosecutors said.
Roehr told police he learned to build “pipe bombs” by watching Internet videos, and admitted blowing up a trash bin at Grace-Gospel Center in Bensenville in May 2011. He also admitted downloading child pornography, authorities said.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to seek no more than 15 years in prison for Roehr when he otherwise could have faced up to 30. By law, he must serve at least half of his sentence, or 4½ years. He has already served about 17 months since his arrest.