2 Ex-Convicts Charged in Bomb Blast : Crime: The pipe bomb, which badly wounded a man sifting through an Imperial Beach garbage bin, had apparently been targeted for a motorcycle-gang leader.

Two convicted felons were charged Thursday with a bombing in Imperial Beach that seriously injured a 59-year-old man in May. Authorities said the intended target was the home of a leader of the Mongols motorcycle gang.

Richard Glen Mathews, 38, and Michael Lee Webb, 32, were charged in a 10-count federal indictment that could send Mathews to prison for 70 years and sentence Webb to life in prison without parole for being a habitual criminal. Each defendant also faces more than $1.7 million in fines.

The two men and a female accomplice, Sybille Maria Tompkins, were arrested about a week ago as suspects in the May 15 pipe-bomb explosion.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry Burns said Tompkins lived in the same house with Webb, but she was not charged in the indictment. Officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center said Thursday that Tompkins is still in custody on suspicion of conspiracy.

James Wilson was injured as he searched for aluminum cans in an alley garbage bin, where he picked up a container that held the 10-inch bomb made from galvanized pipe and filled with black gunpowder and small metal balls. The container exploded in Wilson’s hand, critically injuring him and blowing out several windows in the neighborhood.

Wilson lost a finger in the explosion, along with his vision and hearing. He also suffered a broken forearm and leg, as well as numerous cuts and burns on his face.

Investigators said the bomb was constructed to damage the Ebony Street home of James Rivera, who authorities said is president of the San Diego chapter of the Mongols motorcycle gang. Wilson is Rivera’s neighbor, investigators said.

U.S. Atty. William Braniff said Mathews and Webb conspired to bomb Rivera’s home, but he refused to give a motive for the bombing and also refused to say whether the two suspects are members of a rival motorcycle gang or if they are disgruntled members of Rivera’s gang.

“Obviously, there was a motive. These were purposeful acts,” Braniff said at a news conference, where the indictments were announced.

The arrests resulted from an investigation by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and San Diego County sheriff’s deputies.

According to the indictment, Mathews traveled May 3 to a Spring Valley store to buy gunpowder. Mathews allegedly directed Jeffrey Craig Malloy to purchase two cans of black gunpowder there.

Prosecutors also allege that Mathews went to National City on the same day to buy more gunpowder. The indictment charges that he entered a sporting goods store there, but not that he actually bought the gunpowder.

On May 6, Webb and Mathews allegedly went back to the Spring Valley store to buy more gunpowder. Mathews allegedly gave Jessie Ann Lovelien $20 to buy a 1-pound can of black gunpowder.

Lovelien and Malloy were not charged in the indictment.

Prosecutors allege that Webb manufactured the pipe bomb between May 6 and May 15, when Wilson was injured.

Both Webb and Mathews have extensive criminal records, Braniff said. Webb has served time in California and Colorado prisons for several burglary convictions, authorities said. The federal indictment says that Mathews was convicted of first-degree murder in San Bernardino in 1977.

Both men were prohibited from possessing firearms as a condition of their paroles, according to officials. However, agents recovered a sawed-off shotgun, two pistols and ammunition allegedly belonging to the two when they were arrested, the indictment says.