GPS info places bombing suspect in Franklin nursing home lot
Four days before she found a pipe bomb in her car, Mitchell Oakes’ estranged wife got a cellphone message of just two words: “Die, —— .”
The Pikeville resident, referred to as “AO” in federal court papers, told ATF Special Agent Nerissa Dixon the caller ID was blocked but she recognized the voice as her husband’s.
And GPS tracking put that same cellphone in the parking lot of a Franklin, Tenn., nursing home at the time the bomb was being planted in AO’s Ford Escape. Oakes now faces federal charges that he made and planted the bomb, and for being a felon in possession of an explosive device.
Those are separate from his state charge of trying to murder his wife.
Dixon’s affidavit of probable cause on the federal charges outlines the attempted bombing and Oakes’ violent criminal history.
He was convicted in 2007 for solicitation of second-degree murder in a 2004 killing. Robert Reburn, with the Tennessee Department of Correction, said Oakes and another man killed an acquaintance of Oakes, who served all but three months of a four-year sentence.
In 2013, Oakes was charged with being a felon in possession of weapon and served 18 months on probation, Reburn said. It’s not clear how long Oakes and AO have been married, but she told investigators she had seen her husband build and use explosive devices.
In June, she got an order of protection against him in Chesapeake City, Va. He was due to be in court there Tuesday for a hearing on that order, but instead, he was in federal custody.
AO, a nurse, had finished an overnight shift at NHC Cool Springs in Franklin, according to the affidavit. She went to her car in the parking lot, opened the car and saw a metal object under a glass bottle with wires attached to the inside of the driver’s door. She recognized the smell of black powder.
The NHC staff moved patients and employees to the farthest parts of the building while the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the FBI and ATF began to investigate.
They found a black metal pipe containing explosive material and screws, which they photographed and then safely detonated.
Officers used GPS data from Oakes’ phone to track him. The affidavit stated he was in the Pikeville/Crossville area around 9 p.m. CDT Friday, and was tracked through Cookeville and Lebanon to Franklin and right to the parking lot of NHC around 2 a.m. By 4:35 a.m., he was back in Pikeville.
That’s where he was arrested Sunday morning. Authorities have not said where the arrest took place, but AO said Oakes’ parents live in Pikeville.
According to Dixon’s affidavit, Oakes kept firearms, black powder and reloading equipment at his parents’ home.
Federal prosecutors have asked that Oakes be held without bond and he has asked for a public defender. His next court appearance is set for Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court in Middle Tennessee.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.