By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON — Allegations that a man placed bombs in the city and phoned a threat to the high school are now scheduled to be heard during a November U.S. District Court trial.
Court officer Rod Hansen said John Robert Kennedy was expected to enter a plea Wednesday in response to six weapons and explosives charges, but instead a November trial was scheduled, which will be held before District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara.
Kennedy was charged by a grand jury in July 2011 after allegedly placing two bombs in Trenton, one in a high school parking lot the other on Van Horn Road. Kennedy allegedly made a telephone bomb threat to Trenton High School on April 28.
Kennedy was arrested after investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined forces with Michigan State and Trenton police. The phone call was first traced to a disposable cellular phone purchased in Woodhaven; the vehicle driven by Kennedy was tracked to a Flat Rock mobile home.
Kennedy has a criminal history including five felony convictions dating back to 1991.