Two arrested in California bombings

Police negotiate with 3rd suspect;
bombings said to be aimed at courts

VALLEJO, California (CNN) -- Two men have been arrested and police were negotiating for the surrender of a third in connection with a series of bombings that investigators said were aimed at disrupting the local court system.

Police also recovered 500 pounds of stolen dynamite in a raid Sunday on a house in a residential Vallejo neighborhood and said they found enough dynamite for a "catastrophic" explosion in a parked car at a Vallejo apartment complex.

Investigators arrested Francis Ernestberg, 40, in the pre-dawn hours Sunday at a house in Vallejo. An FBI special operations group picked up Oston Osotonu, 24, at a motel 13 hours later.

Vallejo police were negotiating with an intermediary for the surrender of Kevin Lee Robinson, the third suspect. The bombs were apparently aimed at stopping Robinson's pending hearings on drug charges, according to Mike Morrisey, an official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"We think that was probably a diversion designed to throw the investigation off track and to take us away from looking at only a criminal justice-type operation," said Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini said.

All three suspects face conspiracy and explosives charges, and could face 160 years in prison if convicted in connection with the bombings in Vallejo, about 37 miles northeast of San Francisco.

The bomb investigation began January 25 when a knapsack containing 30 sticks of dynamite was found outside the Vallejo library. That bomb did not explode, but a blast went off the following day at a row of automatic teller machines.

Another explosion blew out part of a wall at the Solano County Courthouse on January 30. No one was injured in either explosion. Investigators traced the unexploded dynamite to one of the suspects, leading to the discovery Sunday of 60 sticks of dynamite in a parked car.

"The explosives were wired up and it was our understanding that it was also to be used in a further attempt to subvert the justice system in Vallejo," said Paul Snabel, a federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent.

A car bomb of that size in a populated area "could have been catastrophic," Snabel said.

Police evacuated a 20-block area of Vallejo when they discovered the larger cache of dynamite, and a semi-automatic rifle, in the garage of one of the suspect's relatives.

The arrest and seizure of explosives should stop the bombings, Chief Nichelini said, but he could not say for certain if all of the dynamite allegedly possessed by the suspects was recovered by police.

"I think the potential for this group of people engaging in any future planned bombings is extremely remote, but we are very concerned that there would be any kind of explosives out there that could either self-detonate and would be inadvertently detonated by someone else or stolen by a new group," Nichelini said.

Related stories:

• Courthouse bomb similar to 2 found in California town - January 31, 1997
• Bomb rips through California courthouse - January 30, 1997

Related site:

• Vallejo Police Department

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