Ex-Husband of Slain Lottery Winner Held on Pipe Bomb Charge

David Scott Harrison, a Del Mar Heights resident charged with possession of four pipe bombs, is being held without bail because he is a threat to flee the country and is a risk to public safety, prosecutors said Friday.

Harrison, 31, is the ex-husband of Ann Marie Jenkins, who won $727,000 in the California Lottery last month and who was discovered slain in her San Marcos home last week.

Authorities say Harrison is not a suspect in Jenkins’ death but was being held without bail on the bomb charges because he possessed passports for himself as well as the two children from his failed marriage with Jenkins. He had been awarded custody of the children.

Tip About Pipe Bombs

Harrison was arrested Tuesday after Sheriff’s Department bomb squad members, acting on a tip, searched both his home and the garage of a friend’s home in Escondido, where a box containing four pipe bombs was found.

The unidentified friend, who had been asked by Harrison to store the box in his garage, apparently was unaware of its contents and was not held, authorities said.

Detective Paul Bledsoe of the bomb squad said the searches also uncovered “numerous books” on explosives, including “Anarchist Cookbook,” which features information on explosives, weapons and narcotics.

The search warrant detailing what detectives had hoped to find and the actual results of the search were ordered sealed by Municipal Court Judge William Draper.

Bledsoe would not elaborate on the investigation into Harrison other than to say it would likely continue “for the next week or two weeks.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter Donovan, who asked that Harrison be held without bail when he was arraigned Thursday before Draper, said the discovery of the passports was a key factor in asking that the suspect not be released from jail.

There also was concern that Harrison could prove a threat to public safety, based on the materials found about explosives, Donovan said.

Unless a judge intervenes, the normal bail amount for a person arrested on suspicion of possessing a bomb is $5,000, according to a spokesman for the Vista Jail.

A bail review hearing is set for Wednesday in Vista Municipal Court.

Attorney Baffled

Bill Fletcher, Harrison’s attorney, said his client had been in contact with police investigators since Jenkins’ death Feb. 18 and that it wasn’t until Thursday that authorities indicated to him that Harrison was considered a threat to flee.

“The logical assumption for why for no bail is that there’s a connection between (Jenkins’) homicide and the (pipe bomb) arrest. But no one has suggested they have any evidence to connect him with the homicide.

“He was interviewed by detectives right after the homicide and cooperated with them completely,” Fletcher said. “He gave them a complete itinerary for the day of the homicide. He was at his place of residence and had given detectives the times of the phone calls he made, the phone numbers and the names of the people who were with him at his residence.”

Fletcher said it was his understanding that Harrison, a property management broker, had possessed a passport for more than two years. “He’s a lifelong resident of San Diego. There was never any indication he would flee,” Fletcher said.

Harrison and Jenkins married in 1976 and divorced in 1982. While the divorce was uncontested, its aftermath was bitter with debate over custody of the two children, visitation rights and child-support terms.