'Wounded and confused': Man who left explosion devices near Brevard church strikes deal

After spending 21 days in jail, a Brevard man arrested for placing explosive devices around Transylvania County in 2021, including near a church and a government building, won’t serve any more jail time due to a plea deal struck June 26.

Between 180 to 200 people sat in First Baptist Church in Brevard for Sunday morning service on March 14, 2021, when the church’s newly formed security team spotted the bottom of someone’s shoes pacing back and forth on one of their cameras positioned outside, Lead Pastor Jeff Maynard, who was “just about” to start preaching at the time, told the Citizen Times July 6.

Thinking someone was trying to get in the door, security team leader Buck Reed and other security members went to see what was going on. Once outside, Reed saw a man later identified as Terry Lee Barham run off. Smelling something, they turned around to see a fuse lit outside a window of the sanctuary, a window Maynard estimates to be 50 feet from the church’s stage, past the building’s brick exterior.

“What he had done is stuffed stuff up in a watering can so it would burn, and he had the fuse lit on top of the can so it would go off after he was gone,” Maynard told the Citizen Times July 6. “The security team member flipped the can out of the way because that’s all he saw. But when he flipped the can out of the way, he saw the pipe bomb … It was not an incendiary; it was a poorly constructed pipe bomb.” It was made of PVC pipe, Maynard added.

Reed called in the incendiary device to the Brevard Police Department, who responded to the scene. Over 130 people responded, “from three or four volunteer fire departments, the SBI, the ATF, the FBI, local bomb squad, the Sheriff’s Department, the police department,” according to Maynard, who said he heard that in court.

A lot of personnel had helmets on and full-body armor, according to Maynard, an experience he describes as “like being in a movie.”

Upon doing a sweep of the area, law enforcement discovered 18 total devices, including the one lit on the church’s property. The rest were located around the four county buildings that surround the church, one being the Transylvania County Community Services building. No one was injured, and everyone was evacuated from the area, some having to leave their cars behind, according to Maynard. Maynard and Reed were on scene until 9 p.m. that night, going over security footage with local law enforcement and the FBI.

Terry Lee Barham, 67, of Brevard, was arrested 1:40 p.m. March 16, 2021, Hendersonville Times-News previously reported. Barham, who is currently on a two-year probation, spent 21 days in the Transylvania County Jail before bonding out April 6, 2021, when he was “released to the streets,” according to a warden at the Transylvania County jailhouse.

In this open plea deal, Barham pleaded guilty to four counts of manufacturing and discharging pyrotechnics, according to Samantha Keadle, a clerk at the Transylvania County Clerk’s Office. This means that in two years, Barham’s case dropped from 10 felony charges down to four counts of a misdemeanor. According to a 2021 news release from the Brevard Police Department, Barham’s original charges were as follows:

• Three separate charges for manufacturing, possessing and transporting a weapon of mass destruction,

• Three counts of terrorism

• Malicious damage to a government building

• Attempted malicious damage to a government building

• Attempted malicious damage to a church

• Attempted malicious damage to an occupied building

More: Brevard man arrested in connection to multiple explosives incident

Regarding why the felony charges were dismissed and pleaded down to a misdemeanor, Transylvania County District Attorney Andrew Murray said, they "ended up with what they could prove after speaking with state and federal experts.”

Murray stated that once experts analyzed the devices further, they could not say the devices met the legal definition of weapons of mass destruction.

“Basically, they were explosive devices of an unknown origin initially that were homemade that exploded on or near a church, which caused the initial charges,” Murray told the Citizen Times July 6.

“Once those were analyzed by experts, we did not have experts that could testify in court that they were weapons of mass destruction. Basically, their determination was they had no projectiles in them, like B.B.s or nails, or anything to project out, and they were simply incendiary devices that, in layman’s terms, were no larger than firecrackers.”

Lasting impact on Brevard congregation

Two years later, Maynard pointed out the ways his church congregation is still feeling the effects of the incident.

“We still have pre-school parents who are concerned about their children’s safety coming to this preschool,” for which about 70 kids come to the church for Monday through Friday, Maynard said. “We are wounded, we are confused, and maybe feel a little disrespected that it wasn’t taken more seriously.”

According to Maynard, one device that exploded caused concrete to chip, but Murray, the district attorney, said he could not say that is accurate from the facts of the case. From Murray’s understanding, the only property damage that occurred was discoloration to the brick, but “they took a wire brush and simply removed it.”

“We don’t want to be known as a church that has a good security team and bombs outside of it, we want to be known as a church that loves God, loves each other, and loves our community,” added Maynard, who read to his congregation July 5 the statement he made in court. “We weren’t wanting to hurt this guy or ruin his life. We reached out to him to forgive him, there’s a lot that ain’t been said.”

Following the close of this case, Maynard feels they don’t know enough about a motive or intent behind Barham’s actions.

“I read a whole statement in court about how we wanted reconciliation, we forgave him, but because we don’t know the motive, the intent, we don’t even know what ticked him off,” Maynard said. “We were asking in court, our reason for wanting to know the motive is we might’ve done something that we can fix. We never knew if maybe we did something that was wrong.”

The Citizen Times reached out to the Brevard Police Department but no one responded by press time. The Citizen Times tried unsuccessfully to reach Barham.

Murray said he could not "get into" the intent. Regarding the dropped terrorism charges, Murray said, “he would’ve had to have some incendiary device for the purpose of terrorism, and that is causing terror of the individuals in the church. Although it was frightening at the time, there’s no doubt about that, we could not prove based on the devices that there was any harm intended based on the lack of projectiles and size of the device.”

Beth Dierauf, assistant district attorney, handled the plea deal. However, Murray said he was “intricately involved in this case, from being briefed and being in discussion with experts, so ultimately it was my decision.”

“The one thing people forget is, it was a traumatic event to my congregation. Have you ever been in church and been told to leave because there was a bomb and, by the way, you can’t go to your car because it’s not safe? How does that affect a child? How does that effect an 80-year-old, people that are vulnerable, that can’t move fast? It was much more traumatic than was ever portrayed.”

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. News tips? Email Ryley at rober@gannett.com. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Brevard man gets plea deal 2 years after placing explosion devices