A 47-year-old Kahului man Opens in a new tab pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing an improvised explosive device July 23 to avoid charges related to ammunition, explosives and firearms found in his house as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
When Maui police and
FBI agents searched Robert Francis Dumaran’s home Aug, 11 they allegedly found “among other things, an improvised hand grenade measuring approximately four inches in length, with explosive powder and a protruding green fuse.”
Dumaran allegedly “crafted that hand grenade” and possessed it before his arrest on Aug. 10, according to the plea agreement.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing an explosive as a convicted felon and one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device.
In exchange for the guilty plea, federal prosecutors agree after sentencing to
dismiss the original charges and agree not to pursue charges related to Dumaran’s handling of the homemade explosive found July 23, or “relating to any explosives, ammunition, and firearms” found in his house Aug, 11 other than the count related to his homemade hand grenade.
Dumaran has 30 prior state convictions, including for felony promotion of a dangerous drug, and misdemeanor terroristic threatening and domestic violence.
Federal prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of items FBI agents and Maui police allegedly found when they searched Dumaran’s house Aug. 11.
They include the “explosive materials and related components,” the improvised hand grenade, a “black cylindrical explosive device measuring approximately six inches in length and with a protruding brown fuse,” four rounds of .22LR caliber ammunition and one .22 caliber cartridge.
According to the plea agreement, early on the morning of July 23 or late at night on July 22 Dumaran allegedly “attempted to detonate a homemade firework” within the intersection of Lono Avenue and Rina Avenue in Kahului.
Dumaran allegedly
drove to that intersection, lit the delayed-ignition fuse on his homemade firework, dropped his firework into the intersection, and “drove to a nearby location to wait for detonation.”
Maui police responded
to a report of a suspicious item in the roadway on July 23 and “rendered safe, and seized” Dumaran’s firework that was made with gunpowder and flash powder, “which are explosives that traveled across state lines” before Dumaran possessed them, according to federal court records.
Dumaran will remain in custody at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu ahead of his sentencing Feb. 3 at 2:15 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake.
He faces up to 10 years
in federal prison and three years of supervised release on both charges. Possessing an explosive as a felon carries up to a $250,000 fine and possession of an unregistered explosive device comes with up to a $10,000 fine.
Dumaran is one of two men arrested Opens in a new tabas part of the ongoing FBI and Maui police investigation into IEDs found in Kula and Kahului.
On Sept. 17, Jess Kiesel Lee, 43, was charged by
federal criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of an “explosive that has been shipped or transported in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce” and “maliciously damaging, by means of explosives, property affecting interstate commerce” on Aug. 7.
He was arrested Sept. 18 by Maui police on a federal warrant.
On Aug. 7, around
4:45 p.m., MPD officers found multiple IEDs near Kaamana Street in Kula.
FBI lab technicians allegedly found one of Lee’s fingerprints on the adhesive side of masking tape on one of the IEDs recovered from Kaamana Street in Kula.
Lee is being held without bail ahead of a preliminary hearing scheduled for Nov. 6 at 10:30 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan D. Slack and Wayne A. Myers are prosecuting the case.
