Current:Home > MyFormer firefighter accused of planting explosives near California roadways pleads not guilty -Golden Summit Finance
Former firefighter accused of planting explosives near California roadways pleads not guilty
EchoSense Quantitative Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-11 04:07:34
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former firefighter with a previous arson conviction has been arrested on suspicion of detonating a homemade bomb and planting severl other explosive devices along roadways across two Northern California counties, authorities said.
The 41-year-old man pleaded not guilty last week to multiple felony charges including possessing and exploding an explosive device with the “intent to injure, intimidate, and terrify a person, and to wrongfully injure and destroy property,” according to the criminal complaint.
The Sacramento Bee reported the man was arrested Jan. 12 following an investigation by the FBI, the California Highway Patrol and local sheriff’s departments after a series of improvised explosive devices were found alongside roads and highways in El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Officials did not specify which roads were involved.
In a social media post, the highway patrol said the man, a resident of Orangevale, was apprehended after an “intense operation” in which an explosive ordinance disposal team carried out “critical search warrants.”
The defendant also faces a special allegation for having a previous felony conviction. In 2016 he pleaded guilty to setting at least 30 fires in rural areas east of Sacramento during 2006 and 2007, causing $7 million in damage, the Bee reported. He was sentenced to five years in prison and agreed to pay more than $246,000 in restitution to the state.
He set the fires after serving as a volunteer firefighter for the Diamond Springs Fire Protection District in El Dorado County. He also worked from 2001 to 2003 as a seasonal firefighter for Cal Fire, according to the Bee.
The defendant is being held in the El Dorado County Jail and is ineligible for bail, court records show.
veryGood! (2746)
Related
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- Disgraced Louisiana priest Lawrence Hecker charged with sexual assault of teenage boy in 1975
- Police announce 2 more confirmed sightings of escaped murderer on the run in Pennsylvania
- Maldivians vote for president in a virtual geopolitical race between India and China
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- 'He was massive': Mississippi alligator hunters catch 13-foot, 650-pound giant amid storm
- Jimmy Buffett's new music isn't over yet: 3 songs out now, album due in November
- A man bought a metal detector to get off the couch. He just made the gold find of the century in Norway.
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- Live Updates: Morocco struggles after rare, powerful earthquake kills and injures scores of people
Ranking
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Powerful ethnic militia in Myanmar repatriates 1,200 Chinese suspected of involvement in cybercrime
- UN report on Ecuador links crime with poverty, faults government for not ending bonded labor
- Inter Miami vs. Sporting KC score, highlights: Campana comes up big in Miami win minus Messi
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- Soccer star Achraf Hakimi urges Moroccans to ‘help each other’ after earthquake
- 7 habits to live a healthier life, inspired by the world's longest-lived communities
- UN atomic watchdog warns of threat to nuclear safety as fighting spikes near plant in Ukraine
Recommendation
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
These Looks From New York Fashion Week's Spring/Summer 2024 Runways Will Make You Swoon
Authorities search for grizzly bear that mauled a Montana hunter
A man bought a metal detector to get off the couch. He just made the gold find of the century in Norway.
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
'Star Trek' stars join the picket lines in Hollywood
US-backed Kurdish fighters say battles with tribesmen in eastern Syria that killed dozens have ended
Queen Elizabeth II remembered a year after her death as gun salutes ring out for King Charles III