Court Told Wrapping Bomb in Blankets May Have Saved 2 Lives

A Simi Valley couple who awoke to find a pipe bomb tossed onto their bed might have died if they had not used blankets to smother the explosion, a bomb expert testified Thursday.

The covers stopped some of the exploding bomb fragments and prevented a gallon of gasoline attached to the device from igniting, Ventura County Sheriff’s Detective Joseph Braga said.

Otherwise, Braga said, “the fragments would have seriously injured or killed anyone in close proximity. And the gasoline would have started a fire that would have engulfed the whole house.”

The testimony came at a preliminary hearing where James R. McKeever, 43, was ordered to stand trial on two counts of premeditated attempted murder, one count of using an explosive device, and other charges stemming from the Nov. 21 blast.

McKeever, who has a back ailment, lay face up on a gurney throughout the 2 1/2-hour hearing, his head positioned so he could whisper occasionally to his attorney, Bruce G. Jones.

McKeever, a Moorpark resident, is accused of trying to kill John Monroe, 34, and Monroe’s wife, Charlene Mayer, 33, both of whom were injured in the explosion. McKeever’s wife, Karen Dunlop, was once married to Monroe, and they have waged a bitter battle over custody of their 7-year-old son, according to testimony Thursday.

Monroe testified that he was awakened about 5 a.m. the day of the explosion by the sound of breaking glass. As he sat up in bed, he said, a flaming object, apparently tossed through the broken front window, landed between him and his wife between the chest and abdomen areas.

“I started wrapping it up in blankets,” he said, adding that the flames were about three feet high. His wife, meanwhile, was kicking the device toward the foot of the bed.

Although he covered the flaming device with one or two blankets, a 2-inch-thick comforter and a horse blanket, “I couldn’t get the flames to go out,” Monroe said. “I could see them through the blankets.”

Then he heard a pop, followed by an explosion that resembled a muffled shotgun blast, Monroe said. After helping his wife out of the room, he realized that they both had been injured by flying shrapnel.

“Most of her calf had been blown off,” Monroe testified, and he was wounded on his right side. Mayer, who attended the hearing but did not testify, has undergone surgery and must have another operation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donna W. Thonis said outside court.

Braga testified that the bomb apparently consisted of a five-inch-long pipe stuffed with powder and attached with duct tape to a one-gallon bleach bottle filled with gasoline and a 16-ounce cylinder of propane. The pipe was filled with ball bearings to enhance its destructive effects, the bomb technician said. The entire device was placed in a paper grocery bag, lit and then tossed through the bedroom window, Braga said.

A search of McKeever’s house turned up two propane cylinders made by the same manufacturer as the one found in the bombed bedroom, a bleach bottle of the same brand, a drill press with fresh metal shavings and a roll of duct tape, said Rebecca McConnell, Simi Valley police investigative assistant.

Another investigator testified that an FBI analysis determined that the duct tape used in the bomb came either from the roll found at McKeever’s house or was identical to it.

The preliminary hearing began last week but had to be halted because of McKeever’s back problem. During the earlier session, Monroe’s son testified that during a visit with his mother and McKeever, the defendant asked him to draw a diagram of Monroe’s house showing where Monroe and Mayer slept.

After testimony concluded Thursday, defense attorney Jones argued that there was insufficient evidence to connect McKeever to the crime.

But prosecutor Thonis said, “When you add up all the circumstances, including a motive to do something to the Monroes, I submit there is enough evidence.”

Municipal Judge Thomas J. Hutchins agreed, and ordered McKeever to stand trial in Superior Court. He is scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 21.

Thonis said McKeever could face a life sentence if convicted of premeditated attempted murder.