A man living in Washington state will spend 42 months in prison for having guns and explosives inside an underground bunker beneath his house.
The man, 42-year-old James Wesley Bowden, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle following his arrest in November 2021. The man was arrested after being involved in an altercation at his home that resulted in Bowden threatening another man with a gun, according to a statement from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
When officials responded to the initial report of the altercation, they discovered a room in the garage that officials likened to a “laboratory with various chemicals and equipment consistent with the manufacturing of homemade explosives.”
Once deputies secured the area from the explosives, they found a removable panel on the floor of the garage that led to an underground bunker, according to officials. Inside the bunker, officials found guns, ammunition, grenades, silencers, armor, and other equipment. Two of the weapons were altered to shoot as fully automatic machine guns, the DOJ said.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, noted that Bowden’s drug addiction likely caused a substantial portion of his criminal conduct.
Hellbound and Down 