California Man Pleads Guilty to Unlawful Possession of Pipe Bombs

 

ALBUQUERQUE – Yesterday Lloyd Jonathon Fry, 28, a resident of Hollywood, Calif., who was in the process of relocating to Piqua, Ohio, when he was arrested in May 2013, pleaded guilty in Las Cruces federal court to unlawful possession of pipe bombs. 

Fry and his co-defendant Rona Ma-Rey Milan Antipatia, 29, a legal permanent resident from the Philippines who resides in Redondo Beach, Calif., were arrested on May 27, 2013, by Border Patrol agents at the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint west of Alamogordo, N.M.  The arrests were made after the agents discovered four pipe bombs, a fully-loaded subcompact pistol with a 30-round magazine, and marijuana in their vehicle and the small trailer it was towing during a routine inspection at the checkpoint.  Fry and Antipatia were then charged in a criminal complaint with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and using a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

Yesterday afternoon, Fry pled guilty to a felony information charging him with unlawfully possessing firearms, the four pipe bombs, that were not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.  At sentencing, Fry faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.  Fry has been in custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Antipatia has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. The charges against Antipatia are merely accusations and she is presumed innocent unless found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Bomb Squad from the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office and is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy M. Castellano of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.