A 47-year-old Little Rock man, arrested after authorities discovered 14 homemade bombs buried in his yard, has been federally indicted, state prosecutors said Monday as they withdrew the 17 felony charges levied against James Patrick Huff Jr.
Huff, jailed since his May 7 arrest, will remain behind bars indefinitely. Huff is tentatively scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 24 before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on federal charges of felon in possession of a firearm and possession of unregistered firearms.
Those unregistered firearms are the 14 pipe bombs that Pulaski County sheriff's deputies, working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, reported seizing from Huff's Amazon Lane home and two other bombs discovered the week before at his ex-girlfriend's home on Ironton Road. Authorities also seized a shotgun from Huff.
Huff's former girlfriend, Angella Michelle Poole, 43, told authorities on May 1st that Huff had been harassing her for days. She said her landlord had found a stick of dynamite at her house that morning.
Huff's mother told reporters after his arrest that she believes the bombs had been built by her late husband as far back as 10 years ago. Her son found them while cleaning out a locked shed at the family home, but did not throw them away as she asked, the woman said.
When Huff was arrested, he had been on probation about six months after pleading guilty to methamphetamine possession in October 2017.
Court records show Huff and a woman, Tasha Marie Lane, 35, had been arrested together on March 6, 2017, by sheriff's deputies investigating a report of suspicious people. Deputies said that when they stopped Huff's car, he had a bag of meth in his hand. Deputies also said they found meth in Lane's purse. The pair pleaded guilty together in Pulaski County Circuit Court in exchange for probation.
In June, about a month after the discovery of the explosives, Huff pleaded guilty to felony charges of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia possession in Saline County in exchange for four years on probation.
In that case, Huff had been arrested in September 2017 after a Saline County sheriff's deputy stopped him because he was seen driving erratically. The deputy reported seeing a glass pipe on the floorboard of Huff's truck. A subsequent search turned up another pipe in his pocket along with the drugs, court records show.
Huff also has a 2004 drug conviction in Pulaski County and a 1991 conviction on two counts of involuntary manslaughter in Wayne County, Mo. Further details of the case were unavailable.
Metro on 08/29/2018