County won't duplicate federal bomb charges

Local charges will not be pursued against Frank Alexander in connection with a bomb found in the Las Vegas Greyhound station on Main Street last week and the discovery of bomb components in his downtown motel room.

Alexander was scheduled to be arraigned in District Court Tuesday after appearing in federal court Friday. The Clark County District Attorney's office decided not to prosecute Alexander on local charges, because federal charges pending against him are virtually the same, local prosecutors said.

If Alexander is not convicted on federal charges, local prosecutors can reinstate the state charges.

During his arraignment Friday, Alexander was denied bail after federal prosecutors revealed that he had told agents that he counts among his heroes Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and said that if given the chance, he will again try to build and distribute bombs.

U.S. Magistrate Robert J. Johnston called the San Antonio native "a danger to the community."

Evidence presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Connell in the hearing linked Alexander with eight bomb components and a packaged bomb discovered last week in Las Vegas as well as bombs that detonated in Dallas and Washington, D.C.

Dressed in worn blue jeans, a striped button-down short-sleeved shirt and dirty white tennis shoes, Alexander, 53, glanced at a wooden courtroom railing that held a photocopy of the charges against him as Johnston read them aloud.

The charges, as handed down last week in a federal grand jury's indictment, include the attempted murder of an employee of the U.S. government, attempted arson by use of an explosive, unlawful manufacture of a destructive device and two counts of use of a firearm or destructive device during and in relation to a crime.

If convicted on the federal firearms and explosives charges, Alexander could be facing as much as 30 years in a federal penitentiary.

Alexander initially told Johnston that he would represent himself.

"(I'll) plead no contest, guilty, whatever," Alexander said. "I don't have money for an attorney."

Court was briefly recessed to provide Alexander the chance to fill out, at Johnston's request, an affidavit of his monetary worth. Upon its review, Johnston assigned Alexander a public defender.

Alexander was not required on Friday to admit either guilt or innocence. A plea is expected when he returns to federal court April 9.

Alexander is also expected to appear in court April 6 on local charges stemming from his arrest March 28 by Metro Police on eight counts of possession with the intent to manufacture explosives.

Police found Alexander at a First Street pay phone, from which authorities say he called a local mental health facility saying he was going to make a bomb.

Alexander permitted the officers to enter his nearby Budget Inn motel room, where O'Connell said they found gun powder, PVC pipes, unspecified electrical devices and enough material to create at least eight pipe bombs.

During subsequent interviews with police and federal agents, Alexander made certain admissions that led authorities to link in him to one bomb that exploded in a Dallas postal center and a second that detonated in the nation's capital -- rumored to have been addressed to the White House.

A third packaged bomb addressed to an employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was discovered before it exploded inside a package room at the downtown Greyhound bus station on Main Street.

In an effort to ensure that Alexander would remain behind bars, O'Connell informed the judge that the defendant has admitted to abusing alcohol and "admires Theodore Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh."

Kaczynski pleaded guilty for the Unabomber terror campaign that began in 1978 and lasted until his arrest in 1996. Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the blasts that killed three and injured at least 22 people.

Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla., in which 168 people died and hundreds more were injured.

ATF Special Agent Tracy Hite said the bomb discovered inside the Las Vegas Greyhound station would have killed anyone near it had the device exploded.

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