Jury convicts Oregon man who injured FBI bomb technician with shotgun booby trap

A jury has convicted an Oregon man who injured an FBI bomb technician with a shotgun attached to a wheelchair, one of the many booby traps the man had set up in his former home. 

A federal jury on June 2 found Gregory Lee Rodvelt, 71, guilty of assaulting a federal officer and using and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon said in a news release Tuesday. 

Rodvelt is set to be sentenced at an undetermined date. He faces up to life in federal prison for the latter charge, prosecutors said. 

The incident took place on Sept 7, 2018, when the FBI and bomb technicians from the Oregon State Police visited a property in the town of Williams that Rodvelt had owned and then lost in a lawsuit, according to court documents. 

When Rodvelt learned that someone had been appointed to sell the home, he proceeded to fill it with a number of booby traps, prosecutors said. 

Bomb technicians knew something was wrong when they arrived at the property and spotted a minivan blocking the gate, prosecutors said. Upon further inspection, they found steel animal traps affixed to a gate post and under the minivan's hood.

They also found homemade spike strips as well as a hot tub turned on its side, rigged so that when the gate was opened the tub would roll towards the person who opened it, prosecutors said. 

Technicians also noticed that the windows of the residence were barred from the inside and that the front door appeared to have bullet holes caused by shots fired from inside the home, according to prosecutors. 

In the home's garage, technicians found a rat trap modified to accept a shotgun shell. Although unloaded, the trap was connected to the main garage door so that it would be tripped when the door was opened, prosecutors said. 

The technicians and two other law enforcement officers used an explosive charge to breach the front door of the residence.

"The group carefully entered the residence, looking for traps, and found a wheelchair in the center of the front entryway. When the wheelchair was bumped, it triggered a homemade shotgun device that discharged a .410 shotgun shell that struck the FBI bomb technician below the knee," the news release said. 

The group administered first aid to the wounded technician before transporting him to a hospital, prosecutors said. 

The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Oregon State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.