Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : $250,000 Bail Set for Man Housing Cache of Weapons

Bail was set at $250,000 Thursday for a Valencia man accused of failing to register three machine guns kept in his home.

The U.S. District Court ruling came over prosecutors’ arguments that Joseph Yohanna, 31, is a danger to the community and should not be allowed to post bail. Prosecutors were expected to appeal the decision.

Yohanna is a bodyguard for Interscope Records and a U.S. Army reservist who allegedly had three unregistered machine guns in his possession--an Uzi, MAC-10 and CAR-15. Yohanna was taken into custody without incident Tuesday morning when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms served a search warrant at his home on Via Maduro.

The discovery of military explosives in the home triggered the evacuation of 32 homes in the quiet, middle-class neighborhood.

Eight claymore mines containing 25 to 30 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives, two incendiary devices, eight silencers, nine handguns, two shotguns and one rifle were also taken during the search. Also found were another pound of C-4 explosives, a quarter-pound block of TNT, 40 feet of detonating cord and 13 fuse igniters.

Yohanna served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman from 1980 to 1983. He became a U.S. Army reservist eight months ago and was a “pre-trainee” for the elite Special Forces program operated through the 12th Special Forces Group based in Los Alamitos.

Kim Yuri, Yohanna’s attorney, said during Thursday’s proceedings that the Valencia resident obtained the explosives and firearms 10 years ago during his time in the Army and that he had no intention of using them.