Man Enters No-Contest Pleas in Mailing of Explosives to Media
A North Hollywood man who called himself the “messiah” and mailed a manifesto to some 200 television entertainers pleaded no contest Thursday to charges that he sent explosive devices to several Southern California news organizations.
Daniel Paul Evans, 54, pleaded no contest to five of nine counts of explosive-related offenses during a pretrial hearing before Superior Court Judge John Lynch.
Los Angeles police arrested Evans at his home in August and found 23 small, Mexican-made explosives commonly known as M-80s. They were identical to the devices mailed to the newsrooms of the Los Angeles Times and television stations KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KCAL and KTTV in April 1995. None exploded, but a device left in a mailbox in September 1995 in Burbank did go off. No one was injured.
Evans’ public defender, Eric Zucker, has described his client as “a confused, troubled man who was crying out for attention” who “never intended to harm or scare anyone.”
Evans pleaded no contest to four counts of the use of an explosive device to destroy property and one count of arson of United States Postal Service property.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in state prison, Los Angeles district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
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