Mann defense opens with focus on spare tire

LITTLE ROCK — The daughter of a business partner of Dr. Randeep Mann testified Friday that her family's white 2002 Nissan Altima had a full-size spare tire in it because she got a flat on a long-distance drive and her father didn't want her to rely on the temporary, doughnut-sized replacement it came with if it happened again.

Mann, 52, is accused of masterminding a Feb. 4, 2009 bombing attack in West Memphis that left the chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board with severe injuries.

Prosecutors, who rested their case Wednesday, said the explosion was caused by a grenade that had been attached to a doughnut-sized spare tire identical to the variety that came with 2002 Nissan Altimas.

Prosecutors suggested through witness testimony that Mann may have obtained the spare from Pete Patel, a Memphis-area business partner who owned a 2002 Nissan Altima. That vehicle had a full-size spare in its trunk rather than the doughnut-sized one when authorities executed a search warrant after the bombing. Subsequent searches of the garage and a warehouse owned by Patel failed to turn up the missing, smaller tire.

On Friday, daughter Priya Patel testified that she got a flat somewhere in Arkansas while driving the Altima from her Germantown, Tenn. home to St. Louis for a summer 2004 concert. After being advised by a state trooper not to drive a long distance on the dougnut-sized spare, she drove home to get a new tire.

She testified that her father didn't want her going back out with just the small spare.

"Dad said he didn't want that to happen to me again," Priya Patel said. "He didn't want me to be stranded with a doughnut ... We replaced the doughnut with a full-size spare tire."

Priya Patel, however, told prosecutors who cross-examined her that she didn't know what became of the Altima's doughnut-sized spare and she agreed with a statement by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Whatley that her father "doesn't get rid of anything if it still has a use."

Also on Friday, a forensic science lab official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that rope, string and yarn seized from the Mann household didn't match string found at the bombing scene. Duct tape and plastic sheeting from Mann's residence also didn't match duct tape and plastic sheeting found on or near a canister of grenades buried not far from the Pope County home.

Mann, a federally licensed arms dealer and collector, was initially arrested on those grenade possession allegations and was later also charged with plotting the bombing and illegally owning two unregistered firearms.

Authorities allege he orchestrated the 2009 attack over issues with the medical board, which had revoked his license to prescribe controlled substances and denied several requests for hearings to get it back.