Ex-Grandfather Mountain Highland Games employee sentenced on explosive device conviction

ASHEVILLE — A former Grandfather Mountain Highland Games employee was sentenced May 30 in Asheville federal court for creating a destructive device intended to explode in the games’ office, as announced by U.S. Attorney Dena J. King of the Western District of North Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Thomas Dewey Taylor Jr., 45, of Newland, to 97 months, or about eight years, in prison and three years of supervised release. Taylor previously pleaded guilty to making a destructive device, possession of an unregistered National Firearms Act weapon and attempting to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce by fire and explosive.

The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and Gathering of Scottish Clans, one of the largest such gatherings in the United States, takes places each July in Linville, featuring four days of Scottish Highland music, food, dancing and athletic competitions.

Taylor worked for the games over the summer while in school, then started as the assistant office manager in 2014. When one of his parents retired in 2020, Taylor became the office manager, according to court records.

What happened at Grandfather Mountain?

In the early morning hours of Sept. 27, 2021, Taylor disabled the alarm system to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games office, headquartered on Mitchell Avenue in Linville, according to court documents. Taylor then turned off the main power breaker and hid a destructive device in an office closet, according to the news release.

The device was set up in a red 48-quart cooler with hobby fuses bundled together with rubber bands. The fuses were tied to a single-coil electric burner hotplate dialed to the hottest setting, according to court records. The fuses ran to fireworks and containers of ignitable liquids, and the hotplate was plugged into an electrical receptacle via an extension cord.

The device was designed so that once someone turned on the main breaker at the circuit panel, the hot plate would heat up. The heat would then light the fuse, igniting the lengths of pyrotechnic fuse and causing each item to explode, according to court documents. A glass pitcher with rocks and a PVC pipe bomb were also inside the cooler.

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The items in the red cooler were sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Laboratory for chemical and print examination. Taylor’s fingerprints were found on multiple items inside the cooler, according to court records.

“The reasons behind his bizarre behavior are not completely clear, but there appear to be a combination of contributing factors: prescription medications, COVID isolation, alcoholism, and legal substance misuse all may have played a part,” Mary Coleman, Taylor’s attorney, said in a memorandum asking for the shortest mandatory sentence.

Taylor’s family, significant other and former teachers wrote multiple letters to Judge Reidinger, highlighting Taylor’s uncharacteristic behavior due to a slip in his mental health, and how they’ve noticed an improvement during his time spent in jail after his arrest nearly 3 years ago.

His mother, Sheila Taylor, wrote that Taylor started working with the games at age 14. During the Highland Games in 2021, Taylor told his superior that he was “having a mental breakdown and not able to function in his job,” his mother wrote.

The Board of Directors voted July 4, 2021, to fire Thomas, who was notified of his termination on Aug. 4, 2021, according to the mother’s letter.

As part of his sentencing, Taylor agreed to pay just over $2,600 in restitution to Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, Inc., court documents show. He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending placement by the Bureau of Prisons, the news release said.

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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Ex-Grandfather Mountain Highland Games employee sentenced in US court