A man who manufactured bombs and stored large amounts of explosives in his rented North County home, which had to be destroyed, pleaded guilty today to federal charges that could bring him as many as three decades behind bars.
The cache of compounds possessed by Jakubec included substances used by suicide bombers and the so-called underwear and shoe bombers, authorities have said.
According to a state prosecutor who handled the case before it was turned over to federal authorities, the cache was the "largest quantity of these types of homemade explosives ever found at one place in the United States."
Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez said Jakubec turned the rental home in unincorporated Escondido into a "bomb factory."
The defendant, who entered his plea to federal charges of carrying a firearm during a bank robbery and attempted bank robbery, faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced June 13 by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns.
Jakubec admitted, when asked by the judge, that he made nine detonators, 13 grenade hulls and 22 other destructive devices.
Jakubec admitted being armed with a loaded firearm when he robbed a Bank of America in San Diego of $43,000 on Nov. 13, 2009. He also pleaded guilty to being armed and going into the same bank two weeks later and trying to rob the financial institution, but leaving when he saw a security guard.
As part of his plea, Jakubec also admitted robbing a Bank of America on Scranton Road in San Diego of $1,480 on June 25, 2010, and stealing $10,400 from another BofA branch on Carmel Mountain Road last July 17.
Jakubec will have to repay the county of San Diego $541,000 for the cost of burning down the rental house and making the area safe before it was set on fire, the judge told him.
Defense attorney Michael Berg said outside court that Jakubec felt vindicated because he didn't have to plead guilty to charges relating to the unlawful manufacture of possession of destructive devices.
