Note: Gazette reporter Stephen Hobbs will have live coverage from the courtroom late Monday morning. Scroll down in this article to see tweets from @bystephenhobbs

For days, authorities tracked a man they believed had tried to bomb a Colorado Springs building.

They followed him to a retail store in Trinidad, monitored his home and reviewed more than two months of his cell phone records.

Although the explosive device caused no injuries and little damage, the case was high profile because of a possible target inside the building: the NAACP.

Thaddeus Murphy, 44, is expected to accept a plea agreement Monday in a hearing scheduled at the U.S. District Court in Denver. Murphy was indicted by a federal grand jury and pleaded not guilty to arson and possessing a firearm as a felon in February. He has since been held by the U.S. Marshals Service without bond.

A trial scheduled to begin July 27 was vacated after Murphy’s federal public defender notified the court in June that a plea agreement had been reached. Details of the agreement, which must be finalized at Monday’s hearing, have not been released.

Steps taken by law enforcement in pursuing evidence following the Jan. 6 explosion outside 603 S. El Paso St., described in Murphy’s arrest affidavit, show the precedence authorities gave the investigation.

DNA results were returned in days, agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aided with surveillance and evidence analysis and items as small as dog hairs were collected on the scene and scrutinized.

While people expressed outrage over what appeared to be an attack on the Colorado Springs chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and others said the incident was a hoax, officials spent weeks behind the scene before arriving at Murphy’s Colorado Springs home on Feb. 19.

There Murphy told officials that he had placed a pipe bomb, gas can and road flare outside of the building in a fit of rage, according to his affidavit. Murphy said he believed an accountant was ignoring him and had destroyed his tax records, the affidavit said. It is unclear if the office of the accountant, Steve DeHaven, was ever in the building and it appears DeHaven died in June 2014, months before the attempted bombing.

Murphy’s stated motive stunned many who were watching the high profile case. And the possibility that the civil rights organization was targeted in the blast appears to have pushed law enforcement officials in their pursuit of a suspect.

Jeff Saviano, a criminalist who formerly worked with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in the metro crime lab, said the unpredictability of having a person suspected of trying to bomb a building loose in the community likely put pressure on investigators.

“That makes it a priority as well,” he said. “In the case of a bombing, you just don’t know.”

For 35 days, authorities had no suspect. That changed on the morning of Feb. 10, according to the affidavit.

Officials had interviewed witnesses, tracked down possible persons of interest and reviewed surveillance footage near the explosion site, but were without a solid lead. They were looking for a white male, with short hair or bald and a white Ford F-250 or F-350 truck, specifically with a dark colored hood.

About 10:45 a.m. Feb. 10, Colorado Springs police Detective George Pinyerd was searching the city for trucks matching the description, when he saw a Ford F-250 with a dark colored hood parked near the Yorkshire Square townhomes located at 6633 Palace Drive. He then called an FBI agent who arrived and confirmed a match to still photos and witness descriptions, the affidavit said.

Almost a month earlier, Colorado Springs police officers downloaded video from a home surveillance camera about two blocks from the site of the explosion. The video showed a white truck pass the home before and after the time of the incident that matched witness descriptions.

The footage was sent to the FBI, which returned still images and video of the truck to investigators, the affidavit said. Those were forwarded to the Ford Motor Corporation, according to the affidavit, as well as reviewed by a sales manager at Phil Long Ford in Colorado Springs in an effort to identify the make and model of the vehicle.

By about noon Feb. 10 the truck had been driven away and several Colorado Springs police officers followed it, according to the affidavit.

The investigation into Murphy’s possible involvement in the blast had begun.

Authorities immediately began to monitor Murphy’s Colorado Springs home, ran the truck’s license plate, compared Murphy’s picture to a sketch from witness descriptions and checked his criminal history, according to the affidavit. Murphy was convicted in February 2009 of theft, records show, and was sentenced to five years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Days after identifying Murphy as a suspect, authorities stepped up their efforts.

They placed a tracking device on Murphy’s truck, according to the affidavit. They followed him to a Big R store in Trinidad and got his cell phone number from an employee there. They watched as he purchased what appeared to be a gas can at a convenience store, as he came and went from his home and when he entered a storage unit, the affidavit said.

Investigators got Murphy’s phone number on a Friday and filed a court order for his records from Nov. 26 until Feb. 13. By Sunday, FBI special agent Scott Eicher had analyzed the cell phone records, and suspected Murphy of being in the area of the building on the day of the explosion and a week before, according to the affidavit.

A final piece of evidence law enforcement say linked Murphy to the crime would seem to be the most insignificant.

Brown dog hair was found on pieces of duct tape authorities collected from the site of the explosion and sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Va., the affidavit said.

Using details from a call for service at Murphy’s home about a possible overdose of the sleeping pill Ambien, where a dog was heard in the background and information from Murphy’s former parole officer, who said Murphy had a brown dog, officials believed they had another significant finding, according to the affidavit.

“If viewed individually, the dog hair would mean absolutely nothing,” said former FBI criminal profiler Pete Klismet. “If you have enough things, probable cause doesn’t mean absolute guilt. It means having the rational view that the person committed the crime.”

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Contact Stephen Hobbs: 636-0275

Twitter @bystephenhobbs