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Jurors Expected To Begin Deliberations In Megahed's Explosives Case

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By TOM BRENNAN

tbrennan@tampatrib.com

Published: March 31, 2009

TAMPA - Jury deliberations are expected to begin today in the federal explosives trial of former University of South Florida student Youssef Megahed.

U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday is expected to instruct jurors today in the law they should follow in their deliberations. Then prosecutors and defense attorneys are slated to make their closing arguments.

Megahed is charged with transporting explosives and possessing a destructive device. He could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted as charged.

Prosecutors probed Megahed's Web surfing Monday, a history they say intertwined online games with fire bombs and improvised explosive devices.

Tim Tidnichny, the head of the local FBI office's forensic computer unit, testified about the Web history of one of the computers that agents seized after Megahed was arrested near Goose Creek, S.C., in 2007.

Some of the topics sought out on the computer, Tidnichny said, included potassium nitrate, nitroglycerin, thermite, incendiary device, improvised explosive device and the Mark 77 fire bomb.

The defense maintains Megahed had no knowledge of devices his friend, Ahmed Mohamed, had placed in the trunk of the car they used for a road trip. Also, the defense maintains the devices were homemade model rockets meant for entertainment, not destruction.

Megahed and Mohamed were arrested Aug. 4, 2007.

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.

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

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