By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON — A U.S. District Court trial for a man alleged to have planted two explosives devices in the city last year is now scheduled to begin in August.
Weapons charges against John Robert Kennedy were clarified in a July 2011 grand jury indictment. Kennedy was charged with six counts of weapons and explosives charges after allegedly placing two bombs in Trenton in April 2011, one in the high school parking lot and the other near a hardware store on Van Horn Road.
U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara last week adjourned the matter until Aug. 14, noting in the order that the prosecution is complex and that the defense counsel will require expert testimony.
Along with leaving explosive devices at two locations, Kennedy allegedly made a telephone bomb threat to Trenton High School on April 28, 2011.
The phone threat was made from a cellular phone purchased three days earlier in Woodhaven. Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Michigan State and Trenton police departments traced the purchase, obtained security footage from the store and parking lot, and located Kennedy in a Flat Rock mobile home where he was arrested.
Additional charges include being a felon in possession of firearms. Kennedy has a criminal history in Michigan dating back to 1991 that includes five felony convictions.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected])