Suspected Synagogue Bomber Pleads Not Guilty

About 100 people were evacuated from the area around the synagogue after the explosion

SANTA MONICA - A transient accused of detonating a bomb outside a Jewish center in Santa Monica pled not guilty Monday, according to court officials.

Ron Hirsch, 60, is charged with one felony count of explosion with intent to murder, use of a destructive device and explosive to injury/destroy and possession of a destructive device. He faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted.

Hirsch, a transient also known as J. Fisher and Israel Fisher, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month.

Hirsch has been in federal custody since he was caught in Cleveland after fleeing the state on a Greyhound bus.

Hirsch is accused of carrying out an explosion that sent a steel pipe encased in concrete into the side of the Chabad House, local headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch sect, in Santa Monica.

The makeshift 300-pound missile appeared to have been launched from a plastic trash can containing hardened cement found nearby.

Also found were several rolls of plumbing and duct tape, metal rods and three empty bags of demolition chemicals.

Hirsch was captured in Cleveland Heights, Ohio near another Jewish center.

Authorities linked the 60-year old transient to the blast using a receipt found at the scene. According to a federal arrest warrant, the receipt was for three 11-pound bags of a "demolition agent" purchased at Constar in Clovis, Calif. on April 1.

The package was shipped to Hirsch at a Santa Monica address, officials said.

The cause of the blast was initially believed to be the result of a "mechanical failure," but police later determined the blast was actually triggered by a homemade explosive device purposely placed there.