A Carbon County man who threatened to blow himself up and possibly injure others in the process entered a guilty plea in the county court on Tuesday.

Kerry Eckhart, 49, ofBowmans Road in East Penn Township, pleaded to one count of bomb threat, a misdemeanor one, in exchange for a charge of weapons of mass destruction being dropped. Judge Joseph J. Matika accepted the plea.State police at Lehighton were dispatched to Eckhart's home on Sept. 17, 2016, for a man threatening to blow up himself and others. When troopers arrived on scene, they found Eckhart outside his home with what appeared to be something wrapped around him. The state police report said that Eckhart said, "He's going to heaven tonight."The report further stated that Eckhart threatened to blow himself up and all others around him.Troopers also said Eckhart told them, "They all could become angels tonight."Eckhart finally surrendered and police found a homemade explosive device on him.Eckhart told Matika that he would never have harmed anyone but himself and denied making threats to others.Defense attorney Matthew J. Mottola, of the public defender's office, said Eckhart has a history of mental health problems and that the medication he was prescribed and taking at the time started to fail him. He said Eckhart contacted his doctor, concerned that the medication was no longer helping him, but did not get immediate help, and that was when the bomb scare incident occurred.Eckhart told Matika, "This is not a normal thing for me."He added that his medication was adjusted by his consulting physician and that he has had no problems since.Matika said he realizes that sometimes certain medications stop working and that med needs to be changed, and that is what happened in this case.Matika placed him on probation for 18 months and ordered him to render 75 hours of community service, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation and continue to follow his counseling directives and take his prescribed medication.