Joshua Turnidge (left) and his father, Bruce Turnidge, face charges
of aggravated murder in last week's bombing at a Woodburn bank.
Posted on 12/18/2008 10:08:01 AM PST by jazusamo
SALEM -- Bruce Turnidge was arraigned this morning on multiple murder charges for his alleged involvement in last week's Woodburn bank bombing that killed two police officers and seriously wounded a third.
Turnidge and his 32-year-old son, Joshua, both face aggravated murder charges, which could bring the death penalty.
Bruce Turnidge wore a blue sleeveless "suicide smock" in his brief appearance before Judge Joseph V. Ochoa at the Marion County Court Annex in southeast Salem, where earlier that morning sheriff's deputies patrolled, searching for anything suspicious in bushes outside the building.
Inside the courtroom, Turnidge, 57, listened silently, eyes sometimes downcast, as Ochoa read him his charges: six counts of aggravated murder, two of attempted aggravated murder and two counts of assault.
Turnidge responded that he understood the charges and his rights, and that he would require a court-appointed attorney.
That attorney, John Storkel, requested a Dec. 26 hearing at which his client would be expected to plead not guilty to all counts. Turnidge is held without bail in Marion County jail.
A probable cause statement filed with the court explains how information from a disposable cell phone attached to a decoy bomb at a Wells Fargo bank in Woodburn led investigators to a Bend Wal-Mart. Store surveillance video then led investigators to Joshua Turnidge, who was arraigned Tuesday. He is also held without bail.
According to police, a subsequent search of Bruce Turnidge's Jefferson property on Wednesday turned up items police think were used to build the bomb that exploded in a West Coast Bank in Woodburn. The blast killed Oregon State Police bomb technician William Hakim and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant. Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell and bank employee Laurie Ann Perkett were injured.
During the search of Turnidge's rural Marion County home and farm, police found angle iron, sheet metal, wiring, plywood painted green, a "badly burned" laptop, metal grating and bolts they say matched the green bomb police mistakenly took for a fake that ended up exploding inside the West Coast Bank.
Officers also found two tubes of Tovex, an explosive slurry, and a blasting cap, the documents said.
Police say they found evidence that Turnidge attempted to dispose of the potential evidence around his property and in a nearby river.
Court document: Bomb expert thought explosive was fake (OR) [2nd arrest made]
Archived articles at link.
Oregon Ping!
I’m interested in what these dopes had in mind. Nothing pisses me off like some numbnuts planting explosives in public.It’s the very essence of dumb random violence, and such offenders deserve no place among the living.
Yes, there’s been a lot of speculation about motive but if law enforcement has any idea they’re not saying.
Prob. pissed off at the banks.
Wells Fargo Bank, whose Woodburn branch is adjacent to the West Coast Bank that was bombed last week, has opened up funds to benefit the families of the officers killed and injured in the blast.
The bank also is donating $5,000 to each fund, said spokesman Tom Unger.
People can make donations to the funds of Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim, Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant and Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, who remains in OHSU Hospital, at any Wells Fargo branch by specifying the name of the officer.
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