Suspect in ’80 Mail Bomb Attack Arrives in L.A. : Crime: Robert Manning appears in court after being extradited from Israel. He is accused of mailing a device that killed a woman.

Thirteen years after a letter bomb exploded in a Manhattan Beach computer company and killed a secretary, a former Jewish Defense League activist who waged a bitter two-year battle against extradition from Israel was brought into a Los Angeles federal courtroom Monday to face charges in the case.

Robert Steven Manning, 41, who also has been identified as a suspect in the 1985 Santa Ana bombing that killed American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee official Alex Odeh, did not enter a formal plea to the federal charge of “mailing of an explosive with intent to kill” in the 1980 case. But his attorney, Richard Sherman, said his client will plead not guilty to the charge, which carries a possible life sentence.

“Absolutely, he’s innocent,” Sherman said before the hearing. “What this is all about is they (prosecutors) want to punish him for Odeh. But they can’t make a case on Odeh, so they charged him with this.”

Under an extradition agreement between the United States and Israel, Manning cannot be charged for the Odeh bombing.

But Nazih Bayda, West Coast director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination group, said he hopes federal authorities will get around that legal obstacle and charge Manning with the Odeh murder. “We are hoping justice will prevail,” said Bayda, who attended Manning’s court appearance.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Dean Dunlavey said the two cases are unrelated.

“I don’t want to get into this thing where we’re being accused of using this case as a stalking horse for the Odeh case,” Dunlavey said.

Manning, who last week staged a last-ditch effort to avoid extradition by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday night accompanied by federal agents. He appeared relaxed and even jovial as he sat in a small courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. Dressed in a blue shirt and pants and wearing a black yarmulke, Manning chatted with his friend Rabbi Zvi Block of North Hollywood, who was sitting in the audience.

At one point Manning, an Orthodox Jew, joked that the only food available at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is being held, was ham and cheese sandwiches. Nevertheless, U.S. marshals would not allow Block to give Manning a kosher pizza that he had carried into the courtroom.

Manning also told Block that he is being kept segregated from other prisoners at the detention facility because of the bobby pins used to attach his yarmulke to his head, saying guards were concerned that the pins might be used by other prisoners as weapons. Defense attorney Sherman said Manning has been allowed to wear his yarmulke and prayer shawl in jail and that he will be provided with kosher meals. Judge Volney V. Brown Jr. also ordered that Block be allowed to visit Manning.

A hearing will be held this week to determine if Manning, a Fairfax High School dropout with dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, will remain in custody. Federal prosecutors argue that he is a flight risk and a danger to the community, and should be held until his trial. Manning was convicted of a 1972 bombing at the Hollywood home of an Arab activist and is considered by authorities to be a suspect in three other bombings besides the Manhattan Beach and Odeh cases.

The 1980 Manhattan Beach bombing killed secretary Patricia Wilkerson, 32, who had opened a tube-shaped package addressed to her boss and followed written instructions to plug the device into a wall socket. The device exploded, killing her.

Investigators say Manning’s fingerprints were found on the parcel. He had moved to Israel before being indicted in the 1980 case.