Police: Wheeler Duo Threw Explosives

Updated 4:30 p.m.

Joshua Denning and Evan Wallace of East Cobb have admitted using two bottle bombs about nine hours apart at one house in Clover, SC, and another bomb ourside a nearby house just outside the city in unincorporated York County, according to the incident reports from the Clover Police Department and the York Sheriff's Office.

Clover resident William Hearsey told police that he heard an explosion in his yard about 12:30 a.m. Sunday but couldn't tell what it was, according to the Clover police report.

About 10 that morning, Hearsey saw a white Buick Enclave pull in front of his house, and a bottle was thrown from the vehicle. He picked up the bottle from his yard and was walking back to his house, according to the report, "when he realized that there was some kind of reaction taking place inside the bottle."

He threw the bottle into the driveway, where it exploded, promting him to call police.

Officers passed a white Enclave as they arrived in the neighborhood and soon pulled over the vehicle with Denning and Wallace inside, the report says.

Wallace had two packages of synthetic marijuana in a pants pocket, police reported. Officers also found a glass pipe used to smoke marijuana during a search of the vehicle.

Also in the vehicle were empty bottles, aluminum foil and The Works cleaner, which Denning and Wallace admitted using to make the bottle bombs, the police report says.

The two 17-year-olds told police they were visiting friends and family in the area over the weekend.

They each are charged with two counts of use and possession of a destructive device in the city of Clover and one count of the same charge in the incident outside the city at the empty house. Each count is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, the Clover police said.

Wallace also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of a Schedule I controlled substance, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Updated 3:30 p.m.

The bonds on the two Wheeler juniors have tripled, according to the York County Sheriff's Office jail records.

Originally held on $5,000 each, Joshua Denning and Evan Wallace now have bonds of $15,000 and $16,500, respectively, although the charges remain the same.

The two are suspected of making several homemade chemical bombs and throwing them into two yards in the Clover area, the Rock Hill Herald said. No property damage and no injuries were reported.

The case report from the York Sheriff's Office says Clover police arrested the pair for an incident at one house, then learned that they had set off another device outside another house whose residents were away.

"Both Wallace and Denning advised me they both were together when (they) threw the device," reads the report, filed by Sgt. Shawn Thomasson.

He added that the forensic unit recovered pieces of the explosive device outside the second home. The forensic unit also recovered bomb pieces at the first house.

Using an HCB is a felony and carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, the Herald said.

HCBs are easily made from everyday home materials with plentiful instructions online and are known as "MacGyver bombs, bottle bombs, the works' bomb or acid bombs," according to a 2006 article in the Mitigation Journal.

A status update from Denning on his Facebook wall says he went to South Carolina over the weekend to attend the University of South Carolina's home football game against Florida in Columbia. South Carolina won, 17-12.

Original Report

Two athletes were arrested in South Carolina on Sunday and charged with throwing explosives at an empty house.

Joshua Denning and Evan Wallace, both 17-year-old juniors who live in East Cobb, are being held in the York County’s Moss Justice Center on $5,000 bond.

The two are accused of throwing an explosive device at a house in Clover around 1 a.m. Sunday and causing undisclosed damage, the Rock Hill Herald reported.

York County Sheriff’s Office jail records show that the two were booked around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Denning is charged with three counts of causing an explosion that damages a building or persons.

Wallace faces the same three counts plus a drug possession charge.

The family who lives in that house was out of town, the Herald said, and no one was hurt.

Wheeler’s online tennis roster from last spring shows that Denning was on the team, which had the best season ever for the Wildcats, reaching the Sweet 16 in the state playoffs.

Wheeler’s online baseball roster shows that Wallace is a junior varsity infielder. He also pitched for his Sandy Plains Baseball 17-and-under travel team this summer.