Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240211
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

TECH GRADUATE TO PAY $2,700 FOR HAVING BUILDING KEYS

Richard Huang, 22, also was ordered to make restitution of $2,100 to the university. The money is to compensate Tech for changing the locks in its computer science department, Tech officials said.

The changing of the Tech locks was "for security purposes," said Dave Nutter, a university spokesman.

Huang, who graduated this spring, is the brother of Felix Huang - the Tech student who pleaded guilty this month to mailing an incendiary device to the manager of a car repair shop in Northern Virginia.

The keys were discovered in May, when federal postal inspectors investigating the repair-shop case searched the dormitory room the Huangs shared in Tech's Thomas Hall.

Investigators remain uncertain how Huang got the keys and why he wanted them, said Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith. "Nobody seems to know," Keith said. "The whole thing is just a mystery. All anybody can say for sure is they searched the room and he had the 39 keys in his room."

The keys were in a part of the Huangs' dormitory room that made it clear they were in Richard's possession and not his brother's, Keith said.

Huang's attorney, Bill Hicks of Springfield, declined to comment.

Huang originally faced 39 counts of possession of state property - one for each key. The keys were to academic buildings, offices and classrooms, Tech officials said.

Huang pleaded guilty to three of the counts Wednesday before General District Judge Thomas Frith. He could have been fined up to $500 on each count, said Keith.

Huang also must pay $90 in court costs. The other charges against him were dropped.

Meanwhile, Felix Huang, an electrical engineering student, faces a possible five years in prison for mailing two black-powder rocket engines in a box to the service manager of a Chevrolet dealership in November.

The device, set to ignite when the package was opened, went off at a post office mail-sorting center in Arlington, roaring into the air and then several feet across the room.

It was accompanied by a note that read, "You and yours may consider this a mere warning."

That incident launched a five-month investigation that led postal inspectors to the Huangs' dormitory room May 7.

Felix Huang's status as a Tech student is uncertain, pending the resolution of his case in court, Nutter said.