Accused Leader Surrenders in Vallejo Blasts

Perhaps Kevin Lee Robinson was desperate. Facing the possibility of life in prison because of an upcoming three-strikes trial, police say, he saw only one way out:

Bomb the courthouse. Destroy the evidence. Remain a free man.

In the end, things didn’t turn out that way.

Robinson, 29, surrendered to Vallejo police Monday, accused of masterminding a farfetched plot to hobble the court system and postpone his trial--a trial scheduled to begin last Thursday when one of the bombs exploded at the courthouse.

Instead of freedom, he now faces federal explosives and conspiracy charges in the bizarre string of bombings that shocked this Bay Area city and captured headlines coast to coast.

Robinson allegedly hired five acquaintances to help plant the bombs, possibly promising them drugs or money.

His surrender came one day after three of his alleged accomplices were arrested and nearly 500 pounds of dynamite were confiscated around town.

Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini called the bombings “a deliberate attempt to stop the criminal justice system from operating in Solano County.”

“In some sort of warped thinking, [Robinson] thought by destroying the police evidence room, the evidence [against him] would have been destroyed” and his prosecution thwarted, the chief said.

In fact, the evidence in Robinson’s trial on drug charges had already been revealed at a prior hearing. No matter what he blew up, police said, his case would have gone forward as planned.

“None of this makes any sense,” Nichelini said. “But desperate people do desperate things.”

With the arrest of Robinson and the two remaining alleged accomplices late Monday, investigators seemed confident that the bombings that terrorized Vallejo for 10 days had been brought to an end.

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The courthouse bomb shattered 22 windows Thursday and blew out a chunk of wall while damaging four businesses on the surrounding block. Four days earlier, a bomb exploded outside a Wells Fargo Bank, damaging three automated teller machines in what may have been an effort to throw police off track.

Two other bombs were found and dismantled--one at the city library near a police evidence storage room Jan. 25, and one in the trunk of a car parked at an apartment complex Sunday. Police said the bombers may have planned to use those unexploded devices in pursuit of their plot.

Because the blasts occurred before dawn, no one was injured. But the city’s collective nerves were badly rattled by the explosions, and on Monday, relief was in the air.

“It disturbed me that it was going on,” said Ken Zadwick, president of Vallejo’s Mare Island Historic Park Foundation. “I’m very relieved that they have not only figured out why but also caught the people involved.”

Robinson was taken into custody in a negotiated surrender on a Vallejo street. “We’re quite happy,” Nichelini said a short time later. “We are very happy to have him off the streets.”

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The two other men arrested Monday were identified as Orlando Johnson, 31, the owner of the car containing the dynamite, and Jason Pascual, 22.

Also in custody are Francis Ernestberg, 40, and brothers Oston and Ivan Osotonu, 24 and 22, who were arrested Sunday. All of the suspects live in Vallejo.

Robinson, Ernestberg and Oston Osotonu face felony conspiracy, burglary and explosive charges, with a maximum sentence of 160 years in prison. The others are likely to face lesser charges because they apparently played more limited roles.

Although no one was injured, the bombing plot had the potential to kill and maim many people, experts said.

On Sunday, federal agents seized 444 sticks of dynamite at several locations around the city. That included 61 sticks of dynamite wired in the trunk of Johnson’s car found outside an east Vallejo apartment.

“I’ve seen one stick of dynamite blow the floor out of a car,” said Mike Morrissey, assistant agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in San Francisco. “We’re talking 60 times that force. If it blows, you get shrapnel and missiles flying through the air. It was a very, very dangerous situation for the public.”

Morrissey said the break in the case came in part from a trace put on dynamite found by two children in a backpack outside the city library Jan. 25.

The dynamite was linked to its legal owner, a construction company in the Bay Area, which checked its supply and discovered 500 pounds were missing from a construction site, Police Lt. Ron Jackson told Associated Press. Ernestberg had worked for the construction company, Jackson said.

A security camera caught a suspect placing the bomb at the bank and that also helped lead to Ernestberg, police said.

Nichelini said the case was also solved in part by tips from the public.

“People talk,” he said. “We chitchat about our new cars. Perhaps when the criminal element gets together, they chitchat about their dynamite.”

Court files show that Robinson had a long history of criminal trouble and was convicted of his first felonies--robberies--at the age of 16.

Don du Bain, a Solano County deputy district attorney, was preparing to prosecute Robinson for the three-strikes case, which involved eight felony counts--five for possession for sale of cocaine, marijuana or heroin and three for possession of a firearm by a felon.

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Because Robinson has two prior strikes as defined under California law, “any conviction of any [new] felony would have resulted in a minimum term of 25 years to life,” du Bain said. Robinson has yet another three-strikes case pending against him, with similar drug and firearms charges, du Bain said.

When the bombing closed the courthouse Thursday, Robinson’s trial was postponed. He failed to appear at the appointed time Monday morning, and a bench warrant was issued, du Bain said.

In Fresno, the father of the three-strikes movement said the bombing demonstrates the “extraordinary steps hard-core criminals will take” to avoid punishment.

“This is amazing,” said Mike Reynolds, who launched his drive for stiffer criminal penalties after his daughter was killed by a repeat offender. “It’s hard to say where his logic was on this one. What was he going to do, bomb every courthouse?”

Neighbors of the Osotonu family reacted with incredulity Monday as details of the plot slipped out--and FBI agents swarmed over their street, interviewing relatives of the suspects.

“I can’t even imagine what possessed them to do something this idiotic,” said a woman named Judy, who declined to give her last name.

Meanwhile, even the most seasoned law enforcement officials were shaking their heads over the plot. More than 75 police detectives and federal agents were involved in the hunt for the bombers. Police received 175 telephone tips in the case.

“I’ve been in law enforcement all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Morrissey said. “For somebody to go to these lengths . . . it’s just incredible.”

La Ganga reported from Vallejo and Warren from Sacramento.