Pasadena Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing 11 Machine Guns

A man arrested after authorities stumbled onto dozens of assault weapons and 15,000 rounds of ammunition at his home in an upscale Pasadena neighborhood pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful possession of machine guns.

Leonard W. Hebert, 58, a former television network engineer, admitted to possession of 11 machine guns in violation of federal law. Under the terms of the plea arrangement, Assistant U.S. Atty. Carole Peterson agreed to dismiss one count of unlawful possession of silencers.

Hebert faces up to 10 years in federal prison when U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew sentences him Jan. 7. Authorities said, however, it is unlikely that Lew would give him the maximum. Hebert remains free on $50,000 bail.

Michael McGuire, Hebert’s attorney, could not be reached for comment. McGuire is best known for representing Michael Fortier, who was convicted of failing to warn authorities about the plot to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building.

Federal officials said 11 of the guns seized from Hebert’s two-story Craftsman home were automatic: capable of firing more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger. “Several of the weapons had been altered to be fully automatic,” said a law enforcement official involved in the case.

Hebert was arrested Feb. 20 after what Pasadena Police Chief Bernard K. Melekian called the largest weapons seizure in city history. Police officers made the discovery inadvertently.

A robbery suspect, after holding up a local convenience store, drove his getaway vehicle up Hebert’s driveway off South Los Robles Avenue, near California Boulevard.

Hebert called police to report that a black pickup truck had entered his backyard. Officers, concerned that the suspect may have entered Hebert’s home, checked the house and found a few of the guns in plain sight.

They discovered the rest of the arsenal in a specially constructed room, according to Melekian. Among the items inside were: 61 rifles and machine guns, silencers, a disassembled hand grenade, several semiautomatic pistols and a helicopter ammunition drum.

Hebert has insisted that he is a collector. But federal prosecutors have alleged that he participated in illegal firearms sales. Many of the weapons seized were rare, some valuable, and most vintage rather than present military issue, according to authorities.

Herbert told a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent that he had collected firearms for 30 years, and had built some of the weapons using parts bought at gun shows, court records show.