3 charged in plot to blow up North Carolina county jail

Alamance — Alamance County investigators uncovered a plot by an inmate charged with capital murder to blow up the jail and escape confinement, Sheriff Terry Johnson announced Friday, Dec. 14.

Three were arrested Thursday night on suspicion of planning to plant a bomb — either a fertilizer-based bomb or dynamite — outside the jail at an unspecified time in the future.

Sean Damion Castorina, 43, faces four counts of felony conspiracy, two counts of manufacture/assemble a weapon of mass destruction, and one count of attempted escape from jail. Castorina was being held on a first-degree murder charge involving the killing of 84-year-old Harold Dean Simpson in August 2017.

 Shannon Douglas Gurkin, 23, of 1038 Sycamore Road, Apt. E, Graham, and Dakota Lee Marek, 24, of 1912 Belmont St., Burlington, are each charged with malicious use of an explosive to damage property. Gurkin had been previously charged with simple possession of Schedule IV controlled substance. Marek has been previously charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering and simple assault/affray.

Johnson said the plot was uncovered by a letter delivered to a wrong address. The Graham resident opened the letter and found building plans of the jail and instructions to place a bomb on the south side of the jail to blow a hole in the wall and allow Castorina to escape. The resident notified the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office of the letter on Dec. 6.

 Johnson said he was “very grateful” to the resident for coming forward. Though the jail sometimes monitors phone calls and some correspondence, authorities hadn’t picked up on the plot until the letter. Johnson only said it was possible that jail staff might have discovered the plan at a later date.

If the trio had acquired explosives, they already would have carried through with the plot, Johnson said.

Gurkin, Marek and Castorina were in jail at the same time when Castorina solicited the two to help made and detonate the bomb, Johnson said. The Sheriff’s Office believes the three came together with similar views of anarchy.

“An anarchist is [a person who believes in] a social structure without government or law and order,” Johnson said. “I think these individuals were followers of Castorina.”

Marek and Gurkin were released from jail legally and began contacting Castorina by phone and mail, in which Castorina told the two how to make and plant the bomb. The three were to leave the country once Castorina escaped, Johnson said.

The goal was to blow a hole in the south wall of the jail, or destroy the wall, so Castorina could escape.

“We could have certainly lost inmates, we could have certainly lost employees here and certainly could have lost other county employees in surrounding buildings,” Johnson said.

The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation bomb squad used a bomb-detecting dog search the entire jail and county facility on West Elm Street to ensure a bomb was not planted.

“[The SBI] continued to work with us through day and night in finding out who these individuals were,” Johnson said.

The letter only referenced a person nicknamed “Chico,” Johnson said, so investigators first worked to find out who that was.

Castorina, Marek and Gurkin are being held in the Alamance County jail under $1 million bonds. Castorina was placed in solitary confinement, where he will remain until he is tried, Johnson said.

The plot was not related to the series of hoax bomb threats made across the nation Thursday, Dec. 13, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Byron Tucker said.

Dawson’s girlfriend Penny Michelle Dawson, who was also charged with the murder of Simpson, was not involved with the plot, Johnson said.