Bomb Suspect Had Pipe, Affidavit Says

A Costa Mesa man who faces federal mail bomb charges was caught throwing away a pipe similar to the device that exploded Friday at the home of a prostitute who had spurned him, according to court records.

Darryl Anthony Carr, a car painter and former electrical engineering student, appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on charges that he mailed a parcel bomb that exploded and severely injured the Santa Ana prostitute’s roommate.

Peter Marshall was listed Monday in stable but guarded condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. He suffered injuries to his hand, arm and abdomen in the blast that shattered windows and rattled nearby apartments.

The parcel was marked as a birthday gift for “Jenny,” the name sometimes used by the victim’s male roommate, according to neighbors and police.

Jenny told investigators that Carr had used similar devices in failed attacks on a Huntington Beach man, a close friend of Jenny’s, the affidavit states. Jenny also told investigators that Carr was a client who grew angry over Jenny’s other liaisons, according to the affidavit.

Santa Ana police detectives found a postmark among the debris and tracked the parcel to a Huntington Beach post office, where a clerk remembered the “peculiar” man who mailed it, the affidavit states. The clerk gave a description matching Carr, but failed to identify Carr in a photo lineup, the affidavit states.

Carr is one of only two people who know the prostitute as Jenny, the name on the package, investigators state in the affidavit.

Postal inspectors trailing Carr on Saturday watched him leave his Costa Mesa apartment with a brown paper bag. Inside they found a length of steel pipe that matched the pipe used in the parcel bomb, the document states.

When questioned, Carr denied having mailed the bomb and said he had visited the post office branch to ship a package of pornographic material, according to the affidavit. The document states that Carr told the inspectors that “he has feelings for Jenny” and is upset that Jenny has other relationships.

The defendant told investigators that wiring, batteries, switches and other electrical gear at his home is used in his hobbies, and he said the portion of pipe found in the paper bag was intended for a perch for his parrot’s cage, the document states.

Carr will return to court Friday for a bail hearing before U.S. Magistrate Charles F. Eich. Government prosecutors will request that he be held without bail, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

If convicted, Carr could face up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.