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Deliberations To Resume Wednesday In Explosives Trial

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 31, 2009

Updated: 03/31/2009 05:54 pm

TAMPA - Nearly three hours of deliberations today failed to produce a verdict in the federal explosives trial of Youssef Megahed.

The former University of South Florida engineering student is accused of illegally transporting explosives and possessing a destructive device. Megahed, 23, could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted as charged.

Deliberations will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Jurors have to sift through the testimony of more than three dozen witnesses and more than 100 exhibits introduced in the 2 1/2-week trial.

Jurors sent U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday a note asking for a list of the exhibits, which the judge agreed to provide. They also asked for a way to review the various audio and video pieces of evidence; the court provided them with a laptop computer.

Megahed and his friend Ahmed Mohamed were arrested after being pulled over near Goose Creek, S.C., in August 2007. Deputies said they found pipe bombs in the trunk of the car – four roughly 4-inch-long sections of PVC pipe stuffed with a mixture of powdered sugar or corn syrup and potassium nitrate, or stump remover.

Megahed's attorneys claim the devices were harmless fireworks or could have been used to propel model rockets, one of Mohamed's hobbies.

"They could be a pyrotechnic, a propellant or a low explosive," said Adam Allen, Megahed's federal public defender, in his closing argument today.

He said an FBI test proved the devices weren't bombs.

"They did not explode when ignited, and isn't that the most important thing?" he said.

Allen said the friends were on a harmless beach road trip when they were pulled over for speeding. Mohamed was driving.

But prosecutor Robert Monk said it was strange to take a beach trip without bathing suits.

"The purpose of this trip was not solely to go to the beach," he said. "The purpose of the trip was also to use the contents of what was in the trunk of the car."

Monk noted the pair was pulled over about seven miles from a U.S. Navy weapons depot.

Allen said his client never knew about the devices that Mohamed put in the trunk in a closed plastic bag.

Mohamed, also a former USF student, is serving 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to helping terrorists by posting on YouTube a video in which he demonstrates how to detonate a bomb with a remote-controlled toy.

Prosecutors said jurors could draw a conclusion about the pair's intentions by the Web sites someone visited on a computer taken from Megahed's home. The topics included potassium nitrate, nitroglycerin, thermite, incendiary devices, improvised explosive devices and the Mark 77 fire bomb.

But Allen said the sites were visited for only seconds and also included topics such as canonization of saints, the fall of Constantinople, online games and e-mail.

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 259-7698.

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