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Brad Spafford, the Isle of Wight County man accused of stockpiling more than 150 pipe bombs, plans to change his plea to guilty, according to court filings.

A June 30 court order setting a July 18 pre-trial hearing states the court “has been advised” that Spafford, 36, “wishes to enter a plea of guilty.” He’d previously pleaded not guilty in January to two felony charges: possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle and possessing an unregistered destructive device. Both charges stem from a Dec. 18 FBI raid at his Foursquare Road home that found what a federal prosecutor described as the largest cache of homemade explosives the FBI had ever seized.

According to the filing, Spafford will formally change his plea at the July 18 hearing, which is being held in accordance with a federal rule of criminal procedure governing plea agreements. The filing states that if Magistrate Judge Robert J. Krask recommends accepting the guilty plea and associated plea agreement, a pre-sentence investigation will be conducted and a report will be prepared prior to a to-be-determined sentencing date.

Spafford was originally to stand trial May 28. The date was moved six months to Nov. 18 after the court granted a joint motion by prosecutors and Spafford’s attorneys requesting the delay to review evidence and “discuss a possible pre-trial resolution of the matter.” 

Spafford has remained in custody at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk since his Dec. 17 arrest. 

Most of the bombs, according to court documents, were found in Spafford’s detached garage in a freezer alongside frozen food, but some were found unsecured in the home’s bedroom in a backpack labeled “#nolivesmatter.” The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness describes the hashtag as referring to an “accelerations extremist ideology” that “promotes targeted attacks, mass killings and criminal activity, and has historically encouraged members to engage in self-harm and animal abuse.”

Prosecutors say the seized explosives included multiple canisters of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, or HMTD, which the American Chemical Society describes as a powerful explosive often used by terrorists.

Court records show the FBI also found a notebook in Spafford’s residence that allegedly contained recipes and inventory, including a recipe for homemade C-4, a military-grade explosive that requires a license for civilian use.

Spafford is represented by attorneys Jeffrey Swartz of the Norfolk firm Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove P.C. and Lawrence Woodward Jr. of the Virginia Beach firm Ruloff, Swain, Haddad, Morecock, Talbert & Woodward P.C.

While his attorneys have asserted that Spafford never made any explicit threats, prosecutors allege in court filings that Spafford was “planning something” he “could not do alone.”

The FBI investigation began in 2023 when Spafford allegedly told an informant, whom he’d known as a neighbor from before he moved to Isle of Wight, that he’d lost several fingers to a homemade explosive device on July 4, 2021. He allegedly told the same informant that he owns an unregistered 10-inch barrel rifle. Federal law defines an illegal short-barrel rifle as one less than 16 inches long.

Spafford, in conversations with the informant, allegedly expressed a desire to “bring back political assassination” and had used a photograph of former President Joe Biden for target practice at a shooting range where he was pursuing a 300- to 400-yard sniper qualification. Following the July assassination attempt on then-candidate and now President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Spafford allegedly remarked to the informant something along the lines of “don’t miss Kamala,” referring to former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Spafford’s lawyers, in court filings, characterized his alleged remarks as “ill-advised comments about the government and political leaders that are not illegal and are protected by the 1st Amendment.”