Teenager to Stand Trial on Bomb-Making Charges

“I have a plan to do a rampage, if I . . . snap, I’ll put Hueneme on the map.”

Those were the words 18-year-old Jose Carlos Herrera wrote in his diary more than a year ago--and these were the statements prosecutors brought to court Monday to try to show that the Hueneme High School student harbored violent fantasies of bombing classmates.

Herrera was ordered to stand trial on four counts of bomb-making, including an allegation that he intended to injure students at the Oxnard campus with homemade explosives. In one diary excerpt, he wrote: “An explosion at school would sound cool on Fox news.”

The teen glanced quickly at his family before being led away by deputies after a nearly seven-hour preliminary hearing Monday in Ventura County Superior Court.

Although the straight-A student denied to police that he ever threatened to hurt any classmates, prosecutors presented as evidence year-old diary excerpts in which the teen writes about bombing the Oxnard campus.

In his diary, Herrera made coded references to female students as “targets” and male students as “clients.”

The writings were seized by Oxnard police during a search of the teen’s bedroom in late April. Authorities also found 105 videotapes in which Herrera recorded himself blowing up toys and other objects between 1997 and 1999.

In ordering Herrera to stand trial on the charges, Superior Court Judge Brian Back cited an increasing level of sophistication in the defendant’s bomb-making skills, as demonstrated in two videotape recordings played in court.

In a tape made in November 1997, Herrera is first seen yelling, “Fire!” as he blasts small objects in a wooden “demolition box” in his garage. By late 1998, he filmed himself planting an explosive booby trap to blow up gophers in his backyard.

During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors presented excerpts of other tape recordings to establish that Herrera was illegally manufacturing pipe bombs and other explosives at his home.

Although Herrera is not charged with making threats, prosecutors used the videotapes and his writings to support an underlying allegation that Herrera was planning to use the devices against classmates.

Herrera was arrested April 29 after police received a report that he was bragging about “doing a rampage” with explosives on campus and had developed a “hit list” of female students.

The tip came a week after the Columbine High School massacre, and was one of a series of alleged copycat threats on school campuses countywide after the deadly Colorado shooting.

Det. Terry Burr testified Monday that he talked to Herrera in the school office on April 29. He said the teen was cooperative, denying that he had threatened to hurt students but admitting that he liked to make bombs.

Herrera voluntarily let police search a duffel bag he was carrying that contained videotapes of him blowing up objects, and agreed to take police to his bedroom where he kept some bombs in a wooden box, the detective said.

Herrera told police he had “alarmed the room” and needed to deactivate the system before they could go in, Burr testified.

Once inside, authorities found two weapons, a .22-caliber rifle and a shotgun, as well as 8 to 10 devices that appeared to be pipe bombs.

Herrera’s neighborhood was immediately evacuated, and 42 devices were soon removed by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad, including an inactive car bomb and an inactive land mine.

Only four devices, however, were later deemed “live” explosives by a bomb expert. Those devices were all small pipe bombs that expert Joe Braga said weren’t powerful enough to blow up the defendant’s house.

After the devices were taken by the bomb squad, detectives searched the teen’s bedroom, seizing videotapes, books, and recipes and designs for bombs, Burr testified.

They also found the teen’s diary, in which he writes about blowing up people “just like the Unabomber.”

In one of the videotaped recordings, Herrera points his camera at a green notebook titled “Bomb Plan.” The recording shows him thumbing through papers, pointing to a photograph of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and a newspaper article on Terry Nichols’ role in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Another video excerpt shows the defendant stuffing handguns into his waistband, then slinging two rifles over his shoulders with rap music playing in the background.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Victor Salas questioned Burr about whether some of Herrera’s violent writings and statements on the recordings were actually copies of rap song lyrics from music videos.

The detective responded that they could be.

Burr also testified that in addition to Herrera’s homemade videos, police seized copies of “The Professional” and “Blown Away”--two movies that depict gun violence and deadly use of explosives.

Salas called his own witnesses Monday to show that his client had interests in video production as well as demolitions.

Two Hueneme High teachers, Winston Deardorff and Nanci Burkhart, testified that Herrera was a good student who, to their knowledge, never threatened other students. Both teachers said Herrera aspired to become a demolitions expert.

Deardorff, Herrera’s video-production instructor, vaguely recalled a conversation with the defendant earlier in the school year in which Herrera talked about producing a video for class about a campus shooting.

Deardorff said he discouraged the idea, which he said came before the Columbine shootings.

At the end of Monday’s hearing, Salas did not dispute two of the four charges against Herrera: possessing destructive devices in the form of pipe bombs, and illegally possessing materials to manufacture bombs.

But he contested the other charges. The first accuses Herrera of possessing destructive devices in the form of a car bomb, land mine, beer-can bomb and other devices.

The bomb expert said those devices were not operable because they contained no explosive agents. Salas argued that they should not be deemed bombs at all.

Judge Back disagreed, however, telling the lawyer that a gun that doesn’t contain a bullet is still a gun.

Salas also fought the count that accuses Herrera of possessing explosive devices with the intent to injure people or destroy property.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Hendrickson argued that the evidence shows that Herrera made indirect threats to harm students on tapes and in writing. Salas countered by saying the only objects Herrera destroyed were his own toys and other inanimate objects.

“You have to make a giant leap from blowing up Happy Meal toys in his backyard,” Salas argued, “to blowing up people.”