Suspect May Be Linked to Vista Bombing

The prosecution of David Scott Harrison on charges of possession of pipe bombs has shifted to the U.S. attorney’s office as prosecutors said Thursday that the 31-year-old Del Mar Heights man might be linked to a car bombing in Vista last year.

Harrison’s preliminary hearing on the felony charge had been scheduled to begin Thursday in North County Municipal Court, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Chuck Van Deusen said the district attorney’s office was dropping the case and deferring to the U.S. attorney at the request of federal prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Atty. James Brannigan, chief of the criminal division, said a complaint against Harrison had been filed Wednesday, charging him with violation of federal explosives laws.

Harrison was arrested last month after investigators from the Sheriff’s Department arson and bomb squad, working on a tip and armed with search warrants, found four pipe bombs stored in a locked box at a friend’s garage in Escondido. The unidentified friend was not held.

Harrison, the ex-husband of slain state lottery winner Ann Marie Jenkins of San Marcos, was expected to be transferred late Thursday or today to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego from the County Jail in Vista. He had been held there without bail after Municipal Judge William Draper decided Harrison posed a threat to the community.

Brannigan said bail for Harrison might be set today.

Van Deusen said Thursday that the sheriff’s investigation might link Harrison to the pipe bombing last June of a car owned by Pamela Jenkins of Vista. No one was injured in the blast. “There are definite similarities in the devices” used in the June bombing and those found in the Escondido garage, Van Deusen said.

Sheriff’s Detective Paul Bledsoe declined Thursday to discuss the case, other than to say: “There are certain things we’re still trying to tie up.”

Pamela Jenkins is the ex-wife of Gary Jenkins, who married Ann Marie Harrison after her divorce in 1982 from David Scott Harrison. Ann Marie Jenkins was found slain in the couple’s home Feb. 18, a month after she and her husband won $727,000 in the state lottery.

The investigation into Jenkins’ death was continuing Thursday with no named suspects. Authorities previously said David Scott Harrison had been neither named nor dismissed as a suspect in her slaying.

The Harrisons divorced after a stormy, six-year marriage followed by a bitter battle over child custody, visitation rights and other issues involving their two children. David Scott Harrison is a property management broker.

Brannigan said the U.S. attorney’s office has taken over prosecution of the case because possession of explosives “is looked upon more seriously under federal law than state law.”

The district attorney “sometimes brings cases over here, and we sometimes take cases over there,” Brannigan said. “We exchange cases depending on the more appropriate forum.”

Van Deusen noted that conviction for possession of explosives carries a maximum six-year prison sentence under state law, compared with a maximum 10-year prison sentence under federal law. Furthermore, conviction on charges of an actual bombing carries a maximum sentence of seven years under state law, compared with a maximum 20-year sentence under federal law.