North Texas man who detonated homemade bomb learns his sentence on gun, child porn charges
A North Texas man who apparently idolized the Columbine High School shooters and possessed a homemade bomb has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said in a news release Friday.
Noah Robert Calderon, 22, of Burleson, was charged via criminal complaint in April and was indicted in May. He pleaded guilty in July to one count of possession of an unregistered firearm and one count of receipt of child pornography.
He was sentenced Friday in Fort Worth by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor, who also ordered him to serve 30 years on supervised release.
“Today’s sentence is a shared success with the community who heeded the call to action to report suspicious activity when they saw suspicious activity,” said Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough in a news release. “The information shared with law enforcement exhibited a distinctive pathway to further violence, that was ultimately thwarted by law enforcement and led to multiple federal charges.”
The investigation began in October 2022, when the FBI received a tip about Calderon’s social media activity, according to the release.
Calderon professed a fascination with high-profile mass shootings online, particularly the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, according to court documents.
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He posted numerous photos of himself in tactical vests posing with AR-15-style rifles and shared Columbine-themed posts along with images of homemade explosives, the release states.
In March, the FBI received another tip that Calderon had detonated a homemade bomb in his residential neighborhood.
Calderon admitted that he had bought explosive precursors online, according to plea papers. He also admitted that he stored 659.2 grams of explosive powder, along with a lighter, cannon fuse, cardboard tubing, a glass jar marked “frag” that contained metal ball bearings, lead, a funnel, and measuring spoons in his garage.
A search of his Google account revealed search queries related to the Columbine killers, the Charleston church shooter, “pipe bomb how to make,” “how to make propane bombs,” and “wear [sic] were the propane bombs in Columbine,” as well as searches of the names of several local public schools, according to the release.
He admitted to searching for the bomb-making information, plea papers say.
A search of his phone also revealed sexually explicit videos taken from a video chat between Calderon and a 13-year-old girl, according to the release.
He admitted he was aware of the child’s age when he saved the videos, according to plea papers.
The FBI’s Dallas Field Office, the Burleson Police Department and the ATF’s Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer prosecuted the case with National Security Division Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and Jacob Warren.
