This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Utah man who had threatened to bomb the Provo IRS building, the police department and a courthouse was sentenced to prison on Thursday for two years after pleading guilty to illegal possession of a machine gun.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer also imposed a $4,000 fine and ordered Keith Max Pierce placed on probation for three years after his prison sentence is completed.
Pierce was arrested in July of last year after he made threats to a confidential FBI source about setting off bombs in Provo, according to court documents.
He also made a deal with an undercover agent to sell a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that Pierce had altered to make it fully automatic. He also obliterated the serial number and failed to register it as a machine gun, according to court documents.
Pierce pleaded guilty in August to one of three charges and the other two — failure to register as a dealer and manufacturer and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number — were dismissed.
As part of the plea agreement, the government agreed to have Pierce screened for possible acceptance into a mental health court.