Former Oakbrook Terrace man set for sentencing for library explosion

SALT LAKE CITY — A former Oakbrook Terrace man convicted of traveling to Salt Lake City to set off a bomb in the city's main library four years ago is set to be sentenced.

Thomas Zajac was convicted in October by a federal jury of six felony charges that prosecutors said are almost guaranteed to keep him locked up for the rest of his life. The most serious charge — using a destructive device in a crime of violence — calls for a minimum of 30 years in prison.

The 57-year-old Zajac is set to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups in Salt Lake City.

Zajac was indicted in May by in a 2006 pipe-bomb explosion at the Hinsdale Metra station. The grand jury returned a four-count indictment in the Hinsdale bombing. Zajac was charged with damaging and attempting to damage a building by means of an explosion, using a destructive device while committing another violent crime, possessing an unregistered destructive device, and threatening to kill, injure and intimidate individuals and damage property by means of explosion, through a warning letter sent to the Hinsdale police chief.

The explosion caused no injuries but did significant damage to the building.