By Kolby R. LaMarche

The discovery of explosive devices at an apartment on 90 Pearl Street sent shockwaves earlier this week through Burlington, prompting an hours-long evacuation and street closure. 

The Burlington Police Department identified Justin Perkins, a 40-year-old local, as the resident linked to the creation of the devices, which included two suspected pipe bombs and chemicals potentially used to create more explosives. The deadly aspect of pipe bombs comes from their potential, not just to blow up, but to launch sharp, hot shrapnel at anything within a certain radius. 

This incident followed Perkins’ arrest just days earlier, on August 21, for allegedly bringing a homemade pipe bomb to a construction site on Dylan Avenue in Colchester and wanting to blow it up with co-workers, claiming he had used similar devices to clear tree stumps, guided by a military munitions handbook. 

When refused, he returned the device to his car and left, only to be arrested later. Charged with possession of a destructive device, Perkins pleaded not guilty but was ordered held without bail, with a federal detainer signaling potential federal charges. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison or a $5,000 fine.

Court records paint a picture of a man with a long history of brushes with the law. Perkins has one felony conviction, forty-three misdemeanor charges, three failures to appear, and a slew of assault charges.

Perkins’, earlier, had taken efforts to turn his life around. A 2019 piece by ReSOURCE, a Vermont nonprofit, described Perkins as a man seeking stability after “seriously slacking” in his 20s. Struggling with ADHD, which he said hindered him in dead-end jobs, Perkins enrolled in ReSOURCE’s Construction 101 program in December 2018. The program provided hands-on training in trades, NCCER certification, and skills like blueprint reading and job site safety. 

Perkins excelled, designing and building a shed for a Williston preschool. He credited the program with restoring his belief in his potential, noting that his ADHD thrived in the technical demands of plumbing. By 2019, he was a registered plumbing/pipefitter apprentice with Vermont Mechanical, working toward a Master Plumber license and an Associate’s Degree through employer-funded classes at Vermont Technical College. “It doesn’t feel like work anymore,” he said then. “My work has meaning for me now—making sure someone’s home will have heat and hot water.”

Though, just six years later, Perkins would be using his pipe-fitting and blue-cement adhesive skills to a different trade, bomb building. Two years before that, however, Perkins and his then- girlfriend, Kelly Cooney, were in court, pleading not guilty to the charge of animal cruelty. 

According to South Burlington Police, residents of the O’Dell Apartments on Farrell Street in South Burlington reported to police a kitten being thrown into a dumpster. When first responders arrived, they said they heard sounds of a cat crying coming from the trash bin. In the bin, officers found a kitten’s face peaking out the side of a white trash bag. Officers opened the bag open and retrieved a wet and crying kitten with brown discharge running out of its eyes. 

According to Cooney, Perkins shoved the kitten off the kitchen table after it had eaten a piece of her daughter’s pizza before throwing the kitten away. 

In 2013, Perkins was charged with Brian Champine after Burlington Police say they were trying to re-sell stolen phones and other electronics. 

Perkins, then 29,was charged with the sale of stolen property while his accomplice, Champine, 30, was charged with larceny and sale of stolen property. 

Perkins was accused of selling multiple electronic devices to the ecoATM, police then said. Some of the electronics were connected to other larcenies from cars in the Burlington area. Perkins was held without bail at the Chittenden County Correctional Center on an outstanding probation warrant.

Somewhere along the way, Perkins’ trajectory faltered. The optimism of 2019 gave way to more legal troubles, after the cat and the robberies, culminating in the pipe bomb incidents. Vermont’s 2025 sealing law allows most misdemeanor and non-violent felony convictions to be sealed, but Perkins’ assault conviction likely remains public due to its violent nature. 

With federal and state investigations ongoing, Perkins’ fate hangs in the balance as authorities probe the motives behind his explosives and the potential threat they posed. In an interview this week, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George refused to give any further comment on the case and was unsure if federal authorities would get involved.