The case against
a Liberty University student who police say told his
family he made bombs and planned to attend the Reverend
Jerry Falwell's funeral was transferred to federal
authorities in Roanoke, Va., Wednesday.
U.S. magistrate
judge Michael Urbanski ordered Mark David Uhl, 19, held
in the Roanoke city jail until detention and preliminary
hearings are scheduled. His attorney was unable to
attend Wednesday's hearing and could not be reached
Wednesday evening.
Uhl faces one
charge of possession of an unlawful destructive device. A
spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office would not say why
the case was transferred from local officials in
Campbell County, Va., where sheriff's officers
arrested him Monday night.
Uhl, of
Amissville, Va., said little in court Wednesday. Authorities
have not been able to determine why the bombs were
made or what they were to be used for.
A relative of
Uhl's tipped off authorities, who found five red cylinders
in a metal cookie tin in the trunk of Uhl's car. According
to the federal criminal complaint, Virginia State
Police agents described each as ''a homemade napalm
explosive device.''
Campbell
investigators determined that Uhl had problems with a group
that sent about a dozen members to stage a protest
across the street from the church where Falwell's
funeral was held. A group from the Kansas-based
Westboro Baptist Church--a group that has protested at
soldiers' funerals--claimed Falwell was a friend
of gays, despite Falwell's consistent condemnation of
homosexuality.
A half-dozen
students at Liberty University, which Falwell founded,
staged a counterprotest, but it isn't clear whether Uhl was
involved.
Fauquier County
authorities were interviewing several people but had no
search warrants, Maj. Paul Mercer said Wednesday. Two people
whom authorities wanted to question had been in a high
school military training program with Uhl, but they
are in the Army and no longer in Fauquier, he said.
(Sue Lindsey, AP)