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June 2, 2006

2 gang members plead guilty in Cranston pipe bombing

PROVIDENCE -- Two admitted street gang members pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this afternoon to carrying out the bombing of a Cranston home last year that cost a 46-year-old woman her eye.

Three cars carrying members of the Laos Pride street gang descended on a dead-end street early in the morning of Sept. 11, and threw a home-made pipe bomb through a window of a rival gang member’s home, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose said in court, giving the government’s first public description of the incident.

Their apparent target, Samnang Tep, was not home, but his mother, Tha-Sean Tep, picked up the bomb just before it exploded.

In court today, Bobby Soundara, 20, of 13 Richter St., Providence, admitted throwing the bomb through the window. Vanhhatdy Souvaunaxab, 19, of the Wanskuck neighborhood in Providence, admitted building the pipe bomb and three others like it, using fireworks from New Hampshire, discarded metal pipe, and a hot glue gun.

The two struck a plea deal with prosecutors that will reduce their prison time. Each faces a mandatory minimum of 7 years in prison, and could be sentenced to more than 10.

-- Journal staff writer Zachary R. Mider

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 4:51 PM | Permalink

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