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Indictments handed down in explosives case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A federal grand jury in the Northern District Court of Ohio indicted four men on firearms and explosives charges.
An indictment unsealed Monday by federal prosecutors charges Donald Paul Phillips, 27, of Mineral Ridge, with conspiracy to manufacture or sell explosives without a license and selling them to people without a license, making or selling explosives without a license, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Also charged are Andrew Syacsure, 31, of Niles, with making or selling explosives without a license; Zachary Booth, 29, of Warren, with distributing explosives to people without a license to have explosives; and Donald Roger Phillips, 50, of Mineral Ridge, being a felon in possession of a firearm.
None of the three facing the explosives charges have a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to make or sell explosive devices, the indictment said.
Donald Paul Phillips has been in federal custody since early May, when he was arrested on a criminal complaint after an undercover investigation.
An affidavit accompanying the complaint said he was selling homemade explosives in the parking lot of the Niles auto repair shop where he worked.
He sold explosive devices to an undercover informant four times between March 20 and May 2, according to court records.
Donald Paul Phillips was also convicted in January 2017 in Warren Municipal Court of domestic violence, a crime that bars him from owning a gun.
The indictment said he had two .357 revolvers on him May 2.
Donald Roger Phillips was convicted of domestic violence in March 2008, also in Warren Municipal Court.
He is accused of having a .12-gauge shotgun May 2.
Court documents do not state how the two are related, but records at the Trumbull County jail show they share the same Salt Springs Road address.
The other three men were all arrested last week, according to court records.
The indictment says Donald Paul Phillips, Syacsure and Booth were engaged in a conspiracy to make money by making homemade explosives and then selling those devices to people who did not have a federal license to handle explosives.
The indictment says the three used the internet to purchase materials for the devices and they used the basement of Syacsure’s house to make the devices.
Federal authorities found 516 explosive devices in the home of Donald Paul and Donald Roger Phillips on May 2, matching devices sold earlier in the day to an undercover informant, the indictment said.
On the same day in Syascure’s basement, federal authorities also found materials for making explosives and a notebook documenting the explosives that were sold, according to the indictment.