Jefferson City Man Sentenced for Bombing Former Spouse's Vehicle

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri
15 January 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

St. Louis – Dean Allen McBaine, 31, of Jefferson City, MO, was sentenced to 60 months in prison following his conviction by a jury in October for one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device. McBaine appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Audrey G. Fleissig who ordered McBaine to pay restitution in the amount of $34,705.21.

According to testimony at trial, McBaine was involved in a domestic dispute with his current wife at their residence in Jefferson City. During the incident, McBaine discharged several rounds from a handgun into the bedroom where his then 13-year-old son was sleeping. Consequently, McBaine’s former spouse and mother of the boy retrieved him from Jefferson City and moved him to her home in St. Louis. Orders of protection against McBaine were issued for the former spouse and son.

Approximately three weeks later, on September 2, 2018 in St. Louis City, an explosion that also damaged two adjacent homes destroyed the former spouse’s red Mini Cooper automobile.

The co-defendant, Michael Bushman, pled guilty and was sentenced on November 22, 2019 to 13 months in prison. Bushman admitted to preparing a “sparkler bomb” with McBaine and detonating it under the vehicle in the victim’s driveway. A neighbor’s security camera system captured the explosion.

The case was investigated by the Metropolitan St. Louis Police Department, the St. Louis Fire Department, and the St. Louis division of the FBI. The case was handled by Assistant United States Attorneys John Davis and Paul D’Agrosa.