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Court Case Against Avery County Man on Attempted Murder and Possession of a Weapon of Mass Destruction Charges Continued Until July 17

Thomas Dewey Taylor, Jr. provided by the Avery Sheriff’s Dept.

By Tim Gardner

The State of North Carolina‘s court case against Thomas Dewey Taylor, Jr. on charges of three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction has been continued until July 17, 2023.

The 44-year old Taylor, Jr., whose last known home address is 316 Snowshoe Loop, Newland, had a court hearing on March 13, 2023 in Avery County Superior Court.

Taylor, Jr., a former office manager at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, had been fired from that job in August 2021 and was suspected of embezzling money and committing financial credit card theft.  The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) was notified of those allegations against him and its agents responded to investigate. They then found what was described as an improvised explosive device (IED) at the Highland Games office in Linville. Taylor, Jr. was arrested shortly after.

The Avery County Sheriff’s Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) also participated in the investigation.

Taylor, Jr. is currently incarcerated in the Avery County Jail, according to Avery Sheriff Mike Henley.

He is being represented in Superior Court by Boone, NC attorney Eric Eller.

Taylor, Jr. was indicted on February 8, 2023 in United States District Court in Asheville of federal charges of attempting to damage and destroy with an explosive device, possessing a destructive device not registered to him and making a destructive device in addition to the state’s charges.  

He pled not guilty to the federal charges on March 13, 2023.

According to a United States Department of Justice spokesperson, Taylor, Jr.’s federal trial is scheduled to begin on May 1, 2023.