Student Pleads Not Guilty to Bombing Plot

A 19-year-old California student who allegedly plotted a “Columbine-style” murder rampage across his college campus pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 122 criminal charges.

Al DeGuzman could face more than 100 years in prison if convicted on all counts linked to Tuesday’s alleged plot. Police say the plan was thwarted at the last minute after a tip from a photo lab clerk who grew alarmed at pictures of DeGuzman with guns, pipe bombs and other weaponry.

DeGuzman, who was handcuffed, shackled and chained at the waist, said nothing during his brief arraignment at Santa Clara County Superior Court.

His lawyer, Craig Wormley, said after the arraignment that his client had “an innocent fascination” with bombs, and accused law enforcement of “a rush to judgment of a man who has no prior criminal history whatsoever.”

Police arrested DeGuzman Monday after he arrived at a San Jose drugstore’s photo department to pick up a roll of pictures that apparently depicted him displaying weapons and explosives. The clerk, the daughter of a local police officer, was uneasy over the pictures and phoned authorities.

After searching DeGuzman’s room at his parents’ San Jose home, police said, they turned up a massive cache of arms and a detailed plan to attack the De Anza College campus in Cupertino, about 45 miles south of San Francisco, at precisely 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials have described DeGuzman, a former high school yearbook editor, as filled with rage and hate. They say his writings repeatedly hail Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teenage gunmen who killed 15 people including themselves in a bloody rampage at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999.

DeGuzman’s lawyer said his client’s weapons collection and Columbine musings simply reflected an active fantasy life.