Metro-east man gets federal prison sentence for building pipe bombs

A Collinsville man who admitted to making two pipe bombs has been sentenced to serve nearly four years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

Jeremy Barr pleaded guilty in May in federal court in East St. Louis to possessing a destructive device and was given a 46-month sentence on Sept. 3, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The two bombs were spotted in March 2023 by Barr’s ex-girlfriend . They were in a car on a street near her home and a school in Wood River, according to information from court records and the news release.

The bombs were made with PVC pipe, black powder, and fragmentation that included bbs, pellets and marbles, according to court records. One device had an “improvised electrical detonation fuse consisting of two strands of copper wire through an end cap. The other device had a pyrotechnic fuse such as those found in commercial fireworks,” the court record states.

“It is not clear what the defendant intended to do with the pipe bombs,” stated a report by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Burke. “However, given his preoccupation with his ex-girlfriend, the attempt to enter her house on March 3, 2023, and his damage to her vehicle, it’s not unreasonable to infer that he had at least vague notions of using the devices to harm her or her property.”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives analyzed the bombs and determined they “could have caused serious injury or death upon detonation,” according to the news release.

A year after the bombs were spotted, Barr was indicted in the case in March 2024. He has been in custody since shortly after the grand jury issued the indictment and was represented in his sentencing hearing by Ankoor Shah of the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois.

Shah could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel imposed the 46-month sentence, as is recommended by the government guidelines.

“Improvised explosive devices are inherently unpredictable, unstable and indiscriminate,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft in a statement Tuesday. “Jeremy Barr threatened innocent lives near a Southern Illinois school, endangering kids and our community.”

Along with his sentence, Barr was ordered to pay $15,000 “in restitution to his former landlord for damage to the residence caused by the Illinois State Police during execution of a search warrant to determine if other devices might be in the home,” the news release stated. “According to court documents, there were no additional devices, but evidence of bomb making was found in the basement.”

Rosenstengel recommended that Barr be held in a prison in the New Mexico area since he wants to relocate to this area once his sentence is served, according to court records.