Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Felix Huang, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alexandria, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Alexandria to a charge of mailing a threat and an incendiary device.
He faces a possible five years in prison.
Sentencing was set for Aug. 6.
Huang mailed the device in November to the service manager of Rosenthal Chevrolet in Arlington.
The device, set to ignite when the package was opened, went off prematurely at a postal office mail-sorting center in Arlington.
A postal worker tossed the package into a hamper, where it hissed and popped for a second. Then the box roared into the air and shot several feet across the room, where it landed in a cloud of smoke as postal workers ran for cover.
Bomb squad experts discovered that the package contained two black-powder, model-rocket engines and a note reading, "You and yours may consider this a mere warning."
In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Huang admitted that a person opening the box could have been severely burned or injured.
Federal investigators said the rocket exhaust reached temperatures of more than 500 degrees and generated a speed of 1,800 mph.
Larry Muzamel, the service manager, said in an earlier interview that Huang had bought a 1986 Chevrolet Caprice that had been used as a police car.
Muzamel said the car had more than 100,000 hard-driven miles on it.
There wasn't much his service department could do about it, he said.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.