CdA man sentenced in pipe-bomb plot

A Coeur d’Alene man was sentenced to 70 months in prison today in what investigators called a plot to kill a Spokane County sheriff’s sergeant and his girlfriend by setting pipe bombs in a terrorism diversion plot.

Brian Dean Simmons, 37, had been charged with attempted first-degree murder. But he pleaded guilty to three lesser charges, including stalking, riot and malicious placement of an explosive device.

Superior Court Judge Robert Austin sentenced Simmons to serve nearly six years in prison. But that time will be reduced by the more than 800 days Simmons remained in the Spokane County Jail awaiting trial.

Simmons, who had been kicked out of the U.S. Army, was arrested in Spokane in August 2005, according to court records.

Army investigators learned in May of that year that Simmons had sent a series of e-mails threatening to travel to Spokane to kill James L. Hughes and Donna Gilmore to regain custody of Simmons’ 2-year-old son.

The child was born to Simmons’ wife, Debbie Simmons, who is Hughes’ sister.

Hughes and Gilmore were awarded temporary custody of the child on the grounds that Brian and Debbie Simmons were unfit parents, apparently triggering Brian Simmons’ anger and e-mail threats.

Hughes is a Sheriff’s Office sergeant assigned to the Spokane County Jail, according to court documents.

Brian Simmons told Army investigators that he was “plotting out of madness in my head” to “kill my wife’s brother” after diverting attention with a “terrorist attack by attacking cops.”