By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON — Four area teenagers accused of mixing common household cleaning products inside plastic bottles in order to create “chemical bombs” and throwing them onto a road in Southampton denied their involvement in court Friday afternoon.
Matthew C. Mientka, 18, of 20 Lead Mine Road in Southampton; Keith M. Robbins, 19, of 9 Reservoir Road in Westhampton; Matthew Pooler, 18, of 128 Middle Road in Southampton; and Trevor M. Devine, 18, of 90 North Road in Westhampton each pleaded innocent in Northampton District Court to a charge of possessing an infernal machine.
According to a police report, on Oct. 6 at 9:31 p.m., officers responded to the area of 31 Leadmine Road for a report of gunshots. Once on scene, officers reportedly spoke with a resident who told them he saw a bottle in the middle of the street and slowed his car down to pick it up because he walks his dogs on the road and he has been finding a lot of broken glass.
As he pulled his car over to the side of the road, the witness told police he heard what he thought were two gunshots and then saw a large cloud of smoke. He then fled the scene because he thought someone was shooting a gun at him, at which point he notified the police, according to reports.
The bottle, which was still in the roadway, was found to be half-full of an unknown liquid and was reportedly still smoking when police arrived. Nearby, police found a toilet bowl cleaner bottle on the shoulder of the roadway and a search of an adjacent wooded area revealed four more exploded plastic bottles that had tin foil and an unknown liquid in them.
Using a police dog tracking unit, police tracked the scent of the chemicals to 20 Leadmine Road where Mientka, Robbins, Pooler and Devine reportedly admitted to constructing, throwing and detonating the homemade explosives, which the state’s Fire and Explosion Investigation unit deemed “chemical bombs.”
Judge Robert Gordon released all four men on their own recognizance and they are scheduled to reappear in court for a pretrial hearing on Dec. 4.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
Judge Robert Gordon released all four men on their own recognizance and they are scheduled to reappear in court for a pretrial hearing on Dec. 4.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the dumb ass judge release them on their own recognizance ? ? ? Put their ass in jail until the court hearing ! This is just another example of how this nation is going down the toilet,,, no accountability