Transylvania County bomb maker dodges jail time, plea deal sparks outrage

By Hannah Mackenzie

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    TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — A man charged with manufacturing explosive devices and placing them around Transylvania County in March 2021 will not serve additional jail time.

Initially facing 10 charges, including manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction and three counts of terrorism, Terry Lee Barham, took a plea deal on June 27. He was sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation.

Jeff Maynard, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Brevard, attended the sentencing.

“I reject the plea,” Maynard said. “We feel like it sets a bad precedent, because now it is a misdemeanor in North Carolina if you set off a poorly made explosive device.”

The church was one of many sites where explosives were found. Maynard snapped a photo of one of the devices, shortly after a church security guard stopped it from detonating mid-service. He said the security team saw a man pacing near one of the side doors via the church’s newly installed security cameras. One of them went outside to check on things.

“He smelled something burning, and he looked up here and saw the can on fire. And he flipped the can out of the way, and there was the pipe bomb,” Maynard said.

A look back at security footage, and two days earlier church cameras captured the moment another device, this time across the parking lot, exploded.

“They found some over here, some over there,” Maynard said pointing. “They just began to find more devices.”

In total, 18 explosive devices were found. Barham spent 21 days in jail before bonding out. Now, his two-year probation sentence is light in the eyes of Maynard, who said the whole incident is being swept under the rug.

“If I made the same device and placed it at a location with a more progressive ideology or a different faith tradition, would I be treated with the same leniency? I think we all know there would suddenly be laws that apply there would suddenly be an outrage and I would be facing much harsher consequences,” Maynard said. “There was zero outrage that this happened to us. This should happen to no one, but anyone it happens to should be treated the same.”

District Attorney Andrew Murray declined an on-camera interview, but said he offered a plea deal after the state’s expert witnesses were unable to prove the devices were weapons of mass destruction.

“They all just said it wouldn’t have hurt anybody, it wasn’t done well. But again, it goes back to intent and motive,” Maynard said. “I don’t want ill will toward anybody, I just want it to be taken seriously. This is not acceptable in a society.”

Murray added this was an open plea deal – meaning the judge determined the sentence, not the DA’s office. Murray said he recommended an open plea deal because he thought it was appropriate, and Barham pleaded guilty to what could be proven.

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