Former DG Man Convicted of Salt Lake City Bombing

Updated: 5:20 p.m.

Former Downers Grove resident Thomas James Zajac, 56, was convicted Monday in U.S. District Court of exploding a pipe bomb at a Salt Lake City library in 2006, according to a story in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Zajac, who was convicted on six felony counts, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years on one of those counts. No one was injured in the Salt Lake bombing. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16, according  to the Salt Lake Tribune.

In 2004, Downers Grove police charged Zajac with disorderly conduct relating to harassing communications, according to U.S. District Court court documents. On Aug. 9, 2004, a bomb was discovered on Main Street in Downers Grove. A wiring error prevented it from exploding, according to the court documents in the Salt Lake City case.

That attempted bombing was referenced a year later in a letter to Downers Grove police warning that three bombs capable of killing 20 people would be detonated the following day. According to court documents, the letter said the bombs were planned because the police department had "attacked innocent people, and now innocent people will pay, on your behalf." The threatened bombings never occurred.

Zajac has not been charged in the Downers Grove attempted bombing, although he was considered "a person of interest" in the incident, said Sgt. Dave Bormann. A DGPD officer testified in Zajac's Utah trial, he said.

The U.S. District Court granted his attorney's motion to exclude evidence from the Downers Grove incident in the Salt Lake City case.

However, federal prosecutors were allowed to introduce evidence from a bombing that took place in a trash can at a Metra station in Hinsdale two weeks before the Salt Lake City explosion.

Zajac was indicted by a federal grand jury in May for allegedly planting the Hinsdale bomb. No one was injured in the Hinsdale bombing.