CHARLOTTE — A North Carolina teenager who made an exploding pen and placed it on his teacher's desk will spend at least three years in prison.

Eighteen-year-old Jesse Bauguess pleaded guilty Wednesday to malicious use of explosives inflicting injury and other charges.

Bauguess was arrested in 2010 after the pen burned the hand and sent fragments into the stomach and arm of a 15-year-old fellow student at their Charlotte alternative school. Prosecutor Madelaine Colbert says the pen was intended for a female teacher.

Three firefighters later suffered burns as they tested a substance in his Charlotte home. Authorities shut down the neighborhood around his home for two days while they searched it.

Bauguess' mother is charged in connection with explosives in her home. Her case is pending.