BOSTON — A Plymouth teenager and a Cape Cod man admitted on Friday to breaking into a building on Harvard Medical School’s campus and detonating large commercial fireworks on Halloween night, causing subsequent damage, the U.S. Attorney said.
Logan David Patterson, 18, of Plymouth, and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 21, of Bourne, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to damage by means of an explosive, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencings for Aug. 4.
Cardoza and Patterson were arrested and charged in November.
At approximately 2:23 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2025, surveillance cameras located at Huntington Avenue and Longwood Avenue in Boston captured two males – later identified as Patterson and Cardoza – walking toward the Harvard Medical School campus wearing face coverings and dark clothing, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video captured Patterson and Cardoza lighting what appeared to be Roman candle fireworks at approximately 2:24 a.m.
At approximately 2:33 a.m., Patterson and Cardoza were seen climbing over a chain-link fence into a construction area surrounding the Goldenson Building and, minutes later, climbing scaffolding beside the building to access the roof, prosecutors said.
At approximately 2:45 a.m., campus police received a fire alarm alert from an explosion on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building, which houses a research laboratory within the school’s Department of Neurobiology.
Investigators determined that Patterson and Cardoza detonated a large, commercial firework inside a wooden locker in the fourth-floor research laboratory.
Subsequent security footage captured Patterson and Cardoza visiting the fifth floor of the building before exiting via a first-floor emergency exit and fleeing in opposite directions; removing and discarding clothing items they had worn on the Harvard Medical School campus; and returning to the nearby campus of Wentworth Institute of Technology, which they were visiting for Halloween social activities.
For the charge of conspiracy to damage, by means of fire or an explosive, Patterson and Cardoza each face a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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