By Jordan Smith
(RNN) – The 50-year-old Florida man who once plotted to bomb Target stores along the east coast to manipulate the stock market will serve 40 years in federal prison, according to a report by WJXT.
A jury found Mark Charles Barnett, of Ocala, FL, guilty of attempted arson, possession of an unregistered National Firearms Act destructive device and making an unregistered NFA destructive device, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Barnett, who is also a registered sex offender, offered to pay someone $10,000 to place explosives inside Target stores from New York to Florida. He bought the components and assembled at least 10 devices disguised inside the packaging of common grocery items.
He took it to his partner and instructed him to deliver the devices. Had his plan succeeded, Barnett planned to take advantage of the low stock prices once the explosions happened, then make a profit when they rebounded.
Authorities said Barnett once told his partner, “If someone has to die so that I can make some money, so be it.”
But his partner became his undoing when they took Barnett’s devices to law enforcement.
Barnett was arrested and charged in February 2017. A jury convicted him in July of this year.
Investigators searched his home, phone and computer and discovered pictures of grocery items he had turned into bombs and articles about stock options.
Barnett had been conditionally released from state prison in 2013 after several felony sexual assault, grand theft and kidnapping convictions.
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