Pamela Leggett Used eBay to Make 122 Homemade Bombs

By Richard Connelly Fri., Mar. 30 2012 at 2:30 PM

"ebay: for all your bombmaking needs"

A Chambers County woman has pleaded guilty to owning 122 illegal homemade bombs she assembled with ingredients bought on eBay, the U.S. Attorney's Office says.

Pamela Leggett, 31, was arrested after a dramatic confrontation at her Anahuac home in which a cop was killed and her husband, who had done the shooting, killed himself.

Leggett bought "precursor chemicals" on eBay to build the bombs, the USAO says. "The destructive devices were improvised explosives that, in some cases, contained pieces of rebar, nails and bullets," it said.

When police searched the house after the 2009 incident, they found "a machine gun, an illegal short barrel rifle and three illegal silencers, along with assorted other weapons," the USAO says.

The incident began when two utility workers came to turn off Leggett's water for nonpayment. She fired two shots at them, and they called 911.

"Four officers immediately responded, one of which was aware that a man, woman and child resided at the home," the USAO says.

No one answered their knock, so the USAO says they announced themselves and entered because of concerns over the safety of the child. Leggett was seen with a gun in her waistband and arrested.

"Hearing rustling noises, the officers continued to announce they were the police and to come out, when suddenly, shots were fired through a wall and a deputy was immediately struck twice in the head and killed," the USAO says. "A flurry of gunfire was exchanged and law enforcement withdrew from the house, dragging the deputy with them."

Backup was called and a SWAT situation developed, but no one responded. "Eventually, a front end loader was utilized to tear down a wall of the home and police observed a man inside with a fatal gunshot wound to his head," the USAO says. "A subsequent autopsy concluded that the cause of his death was a self inflicted gunshot to the head."

Leggett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally receive, make and possess unregistered firearms and destructive devices and to aiding and abetting illegal possession of an unlawful machine gun. She'll be sentenced in June and faces ten years on the possession charge and five on the conspiracy charge.