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CNN Saturday Morning News

Luke Helder Ordered to Be Held Without Bond

Aired May 11, 2002 - 09:06   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more now on the mailbox pipe bomb suspect, Luke Helder.

Our Jeff Flock joining us from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Helder is being held, if you will. Good morning, Jeff Flock, in a blustery, rainy, thundery Iowa this morning. I hope you are safe.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps the only positive we can say is Luke Helder is dry in that building that perhaps you see behind me. That is the Linn County jail, is where he will be held until a trial is to commence. In fact, his next court appearance slated for about -- oh, I guess it's about 11 days from now, about a week and a half from now, after arriving back here in Cedar Rapids yesterday, one week to the day from when the mailbox bombings began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): No smiling or smirking from Luke Helder as he made his way up 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 (ph) 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 (ph) entered and left court without saying what she had in mind for a defense.

(on camera): Some of the legal experts we talked to say Helder's best hope for a defense is to strike some sort of deal with prosecutors, arguing that up until now, he's had no criminal record and, as he allegedly told a police officer who stopped him for speeding as he drove cross country, "I never meant to hurt anyone."

(voice-over): Though some suggest that if it is true Helder was trying to paint a smiley face on the U.S. map by planting bombs, it suggests a possible insanity defense, experts say that would be hard to prove. No comment either from U.S. attorneys in Cedar Rapids, the first of at least three sets of federal prosecutors lining up to prosecute Helder, whose day began with a trip by plane from Nevada back 1,500 miles from Reno to Cedar Rapids, to near the scene of the worst of the bombings.

He will be held for now here in the Linn County Jail. Helder's next court date is May 22.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And Miles, not a whole lot expected to happen between now and then. He did not make an appeal for bond, so there was no psychiatric examination ordered, so he just figures to cool his heels for the next 10 days until that next court date.

Maybe we'll get a tornado here sometime in the next hour or so.

Back to you.

O'BRIEN: And on that note, we will encourage you to seek cover, Jeff Flock. And thank you very much for that report.

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