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CNN Live At Daybreak

Helder Faces Weekend Hearing on First of Several Charges In Mailbox Pipe Bomb Case

Aired May 13, 2002 - 06:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about Luke Helder now. He has settled into a country jail cell in Iowa. He faced a weekend hearing on the first of several charges in the mailbox pipe bomb case.

CNN's Jeff Flock is covering that for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No smiling or smirking from Luke Helder, as he made his way out the back stairs at the U.S. courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and shuffled to a waiting car a week to the day after mailbox bombs began exploding across the Midwest. It was a sharp contrast to the almost laughing Helder the night he was arrested in Nevada.

In a short court appearance, signs too that it is all beginning to hit home for the 21-year-old Wisconsin college student. He said nothing to Magistrate John Jarvey, as the judge read the two counts against Helder, which could land him in prison for life. He asked for and got a court-appointed public defender. Jane Kelly entered and left court without saying what she had in mind for a defense.

(on camera): For now, Helder is being kept in the county jail back there. Legal experts we talked to over a rainy, blustery Cedar Rapids weekend say his best hope for a defense would be a plea bargain with prosecutors. They say he ought to argue that up until now, he has had no criminal record, and, as he apparently told a police officer who stopped him for speeding as he drove cross-country, "I never meant to hurt anyone."

(voice-over): Some have also said that if it's true Helder was trying to paint a smiley face on the U.S. map by planting bombs, it suggests a possible insanity defense. But experts say that would be hard to prove. No comment on strategy either from U.S. attorneys in Cedar Rapids, the first of at least three sets of federal prosecutors lining up to try Helder.

His trip home to the Midwest began on Friday with a plane ride from Nevada to Cedar Rapids, near the scene of the worst of the bombings. Helder didn't ask for bail. His next court date is May 22.

I am Jeff Flock, CNN, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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