Update: Hinsdale Police Chief: 'Confident' Zajac Will Be Convicted for Hinsdale Bombing

UPDATE:

Hinsdale Police Chief Bradley Bloom said he is "very pleased with the verdict" of the U.S. District Court in Utah that convicted Thomas James Zajac on six felony counts related to the use and possession of an explosive device for purposes of damaging a building.

Bloom and Det. Joe Rauen traveled from Hinsdale to Utah last Tuesday to testify on the similarities between the Utah bombing and one that took place in Hinsdale about two weeks prior to it on Sept. 1, 2006.

"There are similarities in the Utah case to the one in Hinsdale and our contact with Mr. Zajac that are fairly compelling," Bloom said. In the anonymous letter I received [taking responsibility for it], he was very specific in describing the components of the device set off at the train station. He threatened to use an additional, more powerful device. This was very concerning for us, because it was a very sophisticated device. The person knew what they were doing."

Bloom said that in both the letters to the Salt Lake City Police Chief and to himself, there were threats of more violence and more bombs "if police misconduct continued in the future." Bloom said the motives for both incidents appeared to be the same—Zajac's belief that his son Adam was mistreated by police. Adam Zajac was arrested in Hinsdale on a failure to appear warrant on Feb. 18, 2005. The Salt Lake City Police Department had an encounter with Zajac that resulted in his being charged with a DUI.

Bloom said he is glad Zajac is being held accountable by the Utah jury and that they paid attention to the evidence presented. "I'm confident that he'll be found guilty in our case as well," Bloom said.

Earlier: Hinsdale Pipe Bomb Suspect Convicted in Utah

Thomas James Zajac, a man charged with exploding a pipe bomb at the Hinsdale Metra station in September 2006 was found guilty Monday in U.S. District Court of six felonies involving the use and possession of an explosive device for purposes of damaging a building, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

On May 6, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced that Zajac was indicted on four counts of damaging and attempting to damage a building and other property by means of an explosion, using a destructive device or pipe bomb while committing another violent crime, possessing an unregistered destructive device (or pipe bomb) and threatening, in a letter to Hinsdale Police Chief Bradley Bloom, to kill, injure and intimidate individuals and damage property by means of an explosion.

One of the counts for which Zajac was convicted in Utah carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 30 years.

The Utah charges stem from an explosion that took place on the third floor of the Salt Lake City library on Sept. 15, 2006. A fingerprint tied Zajac to the scene of the blast, which damaged a window in the library. Phone records place Zajac in Salt Lake City the day it happened. Authorities say the crime is similar to the one that happened in Hinsdale two weeks prior.

Zajac is scheduled to be sentenced in Utah on Dec. 16.