A former Bethesda honor student is expected to be sentenced Thursday for possession of bomb-making materials, nearly a year-and-a-half after police raided his Bethesda home and found an arsenal of guns and other weapons.
Collin McKenzie-Gude, pleaded guilty Sept. 23 to possessing bomb-making chemicals, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison; he also faces a $250,000 fine.
The now 20-year-old was also allegedly plotting to assassinate President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, according to a close friend of McKenzie-Gude's who told investigators of the plan. According to a court filing by federal prosecutors, McKenzie-Gude planned to use bombs planted in the road to halt Obama's convoy, then kill him with the long-range AR-15 rifle that police found in his bedroom, The Washington Post reported.
A letter sent by McKenzie-Gude's mother says it was the friend, Patrick Yevsukov, and his father, Serafim Yevsukov, who brought the bomb-making materials to him.
According to the Washington Examiner:
According to Debra McKenzie-Gude's letter, just two months before federal and local authorities raided her son's bedroom in July 2008, Serafim and Patrick Yevsukov brought a gun locker and other boxes into Collin's room.
By then, McKenzie-Gude's parents were aware that the Yevsukovs had shown their son how to build pipe bombs. In May 2008, Patrick Yevsukov's mother filed a restraining order against his Russian special forces-trained father, and he and the teen moved into a separate house. Serafim Yevsukov then sold off his guns "because he was afraid of the repercussions if the police found them where they had moved," Debra McKenzie-Gude wrote the judge.
McKenzie-Gude has also pled guilty in Montgomery County to attempted carjacking on the morning his home was raided. Prosecutors say he tried to steal an elderly man’s car when he learned police were about to search his bedroom.
