Trial Ordered for Figure in Bomb Probe : Courts: Man allegedly tied to McVeigh faces weapon, resisting arrest charges in Arizona. His attorney says no evidence links him to Oklahoma City massacre.

Steven Garrett Colbern, the explosives enthusiast who piqued the interest of federal authorities because of his alleged ties to Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh, was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on two charges unrelated to the bombing and to remain in prison without bail.

The 35-year-old UCLA graduate with a degree in chemistry, who had been a fugitive for seven months on a California weapons charge, was arrested Friday in the played-out mining town of Oatman in the western Arizona desert. In federal court Tuesday, Colbern was ordered to stand trial on charges of resisting arrest and being a fugitive with a firearm.

Federal marshals, whose duty it is to catch fugitives, had known since before Christmas that Colbern was in Oatman but had not attempted to apprehend him until his name surfaced as an acquaintance of McVeigh.

Five days after his arrest, authorities have yet to reveal any evidence that Colbern is suspected in the bombing or that he knew of any planning done by McVeigh.

“The government has shown no evidence linking Mr. Colbern to Oklahoma City,” said John Hannah, one of two federal public defenders assigned to represent him. “If they had anything, they would have displayed it in court because their investigation has been ongoing.”

All that has been disclosed since Colbern’s arrest is that he and McVeigh know each other, both lived marginally in the Kingman, Ariz., area, both love weapons and hate the U.S. government and both may have been on the fringes of the methamphetamine trade that flourishes in the Arizona desert.

Although no drug charges have been filed, investigators found the kind of equipment used in making methamphetamine while searching in and around where Colbern lived. Several acquaintances have said that McVeigh was selling methamphetamine in the weeks before the bombing while he was living in Kingman.

Methamphetamine production is a major problem in the Kingman-Oatman area, as in many rural areas of Southern California. “It’s one of the few industries out there,” said one source.

In testimony Tuesday before Federal Magistrate Judge Morton H. Sitver, Deputy U.S. Marshal William C. Knaust said marshals had known since Dec. 22 that Colbern was in Oatman. Marshals had searched the home of Colbern’s parents in Oxnard and found a letter from him to his mother in which he vowed to resist arrest, Knaust said.

When confronted by three marshals in civilian clothes, Colbern struggled and yelled for help from passersby, Knaust said.

Colbern was found to be carrying a loaded .22-caliber pistol and a knife, but his attorneys said that in the tradition of the Wild West it is not unusual for people to carry weapons. In fact, the Oatman man who had pointed out Colbern was wearing a gun in a holster.

A hearing has been set for May 26 on whether Colbern will stand trial on the two Arizona charges before or after being sent to California to stand trial on a 1994 weapons charge arising from his arrest in Upland.

Hannah said he would like to see the Arizona charges dealt with before Colbern is returned to California, which suggests a possible bargain with federal authorities, possibility including Colbern’s assistance in providing information about McVeigh’s stay in Kingman in the months before the bombing.

Janet Napolitano, U.S. attorney for Arizona, and Tom Hannis, chief of the criminal division in the Arizona office of the U.S. attorney, represented the federal government in court but declined afterward to discuss any relationship between Colbern and the Oklahoma City bombing, which claimed 168 lives.

In another development, a former roommate of Colbern, Dennis Kemp Malzac, 37, faces indictment Thursday by a Mohave County, Ariz., grand jury on arson charges involving the bombing of a home in Kingman in February. Malzac was arrested Saturday and is being held on $50,000 bail.

But as in the arrest of Colbern, no link between Malzac and the Oklahoma City bombing has been discovered, despite the fact that the bomb allegedly devised by Malzac used a formula similar to that of the bomb that pulverized the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19.

“Both Colbern and Malzac are like a lot of guys who are hiding out in the desert and being anti-social, but that’s as far as it goes,” said one source.

In a brief hearing, Knaust said that Colbern struggled for three to five minutes Friday before being subdued and that “he was yelling for help--’somebody help me’--throughout the entire event.”

In the hearing’s only moment of levity, Colbern attorney Jon Sands objected to Knaust being asked by Hannis to characterize what Colbern had written to his mother in the letter seized on Dec. 22.

“That is as unfair as Connie Chung asking Newt Gingrich’s mother what Newt had said,” Sands said.

The magistrate ruled that Colbern is a flight risk and a danger to the public and should remain in a federal prison outside Phoenix.

On Saturday, Colbern looked dazed and somewhat bewildered; Tuesday, he had regained some of his composure.

Colbern had been working as a cook and living under an alias in Oatman (population 140) for several months and marshals had no trouble finding him, Knaust testified. His roommate has insisted to reporters that Colbern, whom he characterized as polite and a good “Jeopardy” player, was at home with him when the Oklahoma City blast occurred.