Richlands man charged with lying to investigators after explosives found
ROBERT SORRELL | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Jun 5, 2020 Updated Jun 5, 2020



Cole Alexander Carini
Contributed photo

A Richlands man — whose hand was amputated in an accident police say was connected to a stash of explosives found at his home earlier this week — was charged Friday with lying to law enforcement officers. ... Cole Alexander Carini, 19, appeared via video in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Sargent on the charge. Carini is currently in custody at the Western Virginia Regional Jail in Salem after recovering at a Roanoke hospital from injuries sustained in an apparent explosion at his home, the FBI said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

Special Agent Neil Schimke said Carini went to a hospital in Richlands following an incident that resulted in an amputated hand and fingers. At the hospital, Carini told Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office detectives that he was injured in a lawn mower accident, but doctors said they did not believe the injuries were consistent with such an accident. ... Carini was later taken to the hospital in Roanoke for further treatment.

“Carini was known to them as being someone who had previously made explosive devices and had been on probation for explosions violations up until Sept. 2019,” Schimke wrote. ... On Jan. 1, 2016, 911 calls were made by Carini’s neighbors in Richlands who said they heard loud noises and their windows vibrated, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies were dispatched and they discovered materials used to make bombs, as well as pipe bombs, in an outbuilding on property on Holy Road, where Carini lived with his mother.

Carini was charged in 2016 with two counts of possessing or manufacturing explosive materials. Those charges were later dismissed, according to court records. Those same records show Carini had only minor traffic offenses until June 2, 2020. ... During Tuesday’s investigation, Schimke said he went to the property and found human flesh on the floor at the door to Carini’s second-floor bedroom. Entering the room, he found a footlocker with a plastic bottle inside. The bottle contained a white powdery substance that tested positive as triacetone triperoxide. The substance is used in the creation of improvised explosive devices, the agent wrote in the complaint.

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Richlands News & Press reporter Jim Talbert contributed to this article.

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