Student to Stand Trial in Bombing Plan

A straight-A student at Hueneme High School was ordered Monday to stand trial on charges of bomb making, including an allegation that he intended to injure students on campus with homemade explosives.

Jose Carlos Herrera, 18, glanced quickly at his family before being led away by deputies after a nearly seven-hour preliminary hearing in Ventura County Superior Court.

Although he denied to police that he ever threatened to hurt classmates, prosecutors on Monday presented as evidence year-old diary excerpts in which the author talks about bombing the Oxnard campus.

“I have a plan to do a rampage, if I . . . snap, I’ll put Hueneme on the map,” the diary reads. “An explosion at school would sound cool on Fox news.”

Oxnard police took the diary during a search of Herrera’s bedroom.

They also found 105 videotapes in which he reportedly recorded himself blowing up children’s toys and other objects between 1997 and 1999.

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.

Det. Terry Burr testified Monday that he talked to Herrera in the school office April 29. He said the teenager 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 a .22-caliber rifle and a shotgun, as well as eight to 10 devices that appeared to be pipe bombs.

Herrera’s neighborhood was evacuated and 42 devices were removed by the county bomb squad, including an inactive car bomb and land mine.

Only four devices were later deemed “live” explosives by a bomb expert. Those were all small pipe bombs.

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