LITTLE ROCK — UPDATE 1:39p.m.
A Feb. 24, 2008 email sent from an account used by Randeep Mann and his wife to an address used by Mann's brother included a photograph of Dr. Trent Pierce, the chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board who was severely injured in a bombing outside his home a little less than a year later, authorities said.
David Oliver, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified Tuesday at Mann's trial that the email was "very suspicious" and that the photo might have been provided "for someone to target someone."
The email was sent from mannrs@hotmail.com to mannss@hotmail.com. It begins "I hope this picture is good," before identifying the people in an attached image as Pierce and former medical board chair Ray Jouett.
Oliver said the email was sent to Sandip Mann, Randeep Mann's brother who was deported in 2002. He said Sandip Mann was investigated after the bombing because of his relationship to Randeep Mann and because the email "attracted (investigators') attention."
The email was sent four days after the board issued a letter to Mann denying his request to have his permit for prescribing controlled substances reinstated. Prosecutors have alleged the bombing was in response to continued trouble with the board, which had revoked that permit amid several overdoses by Mann's patients.
The email was unsigned, but prosecutors showed 15 other example messages taken from the same account showing Randeep Mann used it for personal and professional correspondence.
UPDATE 1:22 p.m.
Prosecutors are suggesting through questioning Tuesday in the Randeep Mann trial that a spare tire used in a 2009 bombing attack may have come from a car belonging to a business partner of the Russellville physician.
A groundskeeper and friend who did "handyman" work for Mann testified Tuesday that he was with Mann in Memphis when the doctor said he needed to go to the business partner's residence to pick up a spare tire. The partner was identified then only as Pete, a co-owner with Mann of motels in Memphis.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobbaaco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent David Oliver, meanwhile, later testified that he searched a white 2002 Nissan Altima belonging to Germantown, Tenn. resident Pete Patel and found it had a full-size spare tire and not the "doughnut-sized" one it was designed to hold.
That testimony came hours after jurors heard from a Nissan engineer who said the spare tire booby-trapped with a grenade in the Feb. 4, 2009 bombing was the same Firestone model used on 2002 Nissan Altimas.
Mann is on trial in U.S. District Court on accusations he plotted the attack that severely injured Dr. Trent Pierce, chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. Prosecutors say Mann and the board were at odds after the board revoked his permit to prescribe controlled substances and as it was starting an investigation that could have resulted in Mann losing his medical license.
Phil Barthelme, who called himself a friend and handyman of Mann's, said he accompanied him to Memphis to look at possible renovation work at one of the motels.
After meeting Pete there and inspecting the rooms needing work, Barthelme rode with Mann to Pete's home.
Barthelme testified that he never saw a spare tire at the residence but that Mann mentioned going there to pick one up. They never talked about what its intended purpose was, Barthelme said.
"He could have had a flat tire at his house," Barthelme said. "It didn't pertain to me."
Defense attorneys pressed Barthelme on the tire story and suggested he was pressured to come up with the information during an interview with Oliver and another ATF agent.
Barthelme denied that and said multiple times he was telling the truth. But he acknowledged telling attorneys after that interview that the agents were trying to crack him into "telling them something I had no idea about." Barthelme also said the agents brought up the tire first and that he felt during the interview like he might be "cuffed and stuffed" by the agents.
In his testimony, Oliver acknowledged pressing Barthelme with specific questions about the tire to "make sure he was telling the truth."
"To me, it seemed like he might have seen the tire and he was afraid to tell us," Oliver said. "I think he thought he was going to get in trouble."
Oliver testified he went to Patel's Tennesse home to search one of Patel's three Nissan Altimas after investigating "financial records, phone calls and open-source databases" that identified it. He said Patel and Mann "owned hotels together."
He said Patel initially refused to allow the agents to look through the car but opened it after they showed him their federal search warrant. The doughnut-sized tire wasn't inside and it also didn't turn up during searches outside the home and of Patel's warehouse, Oliver said.
Barthelme said he also hauled a truckload of items from Mann's home in the days after the doctor's initial arrest in March 2009. That arrest came after authorities found a cache of grenades buried near Mann's residence.
Barthelme said he got the items after Mann's wife called and asked him to remove them. He described them as collectibles, lamps, coffee cups, kids' videos and other "stuff she didn't want anymore." He said he threw out some of the items, gave some away and burned the rest.
Barthelme was not asked by Mann to bury the grenades, he said, adding he hadn't buried anything for Mann.
"As a matter of fact, I've never seen a grenade (in person) before you showed me one," he told Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon at one point.
Barthelme is the husband of Rita Barthelme, who testified earlier in the trial that Mann provided her with painkillers after his permit to prescribe controlled substances was revoked. Rita Barthelme twice overdosed while taking the drugs.
An official from Nissan also testified Tuesday that the tire used in the attack was the type from a 2002 Nissan Altima. Prosecutors asked him about a specific vehicle identification number belonging to a 2002 Nissan Altima, but they have not yet said who that vehicle belongs to.