George Djura Jakubec, a resident of San Diego County accused of having a “bomb factory” inside his home, is asking for a dismissal of the eight counts against him. He argues that “potentially exculpatory evidence” was destroyed when officials burned down his house, which they deemed too dangerous to enter because they said it still had explosives inside.
In a filing from March 3, Jakubec’s attorney Michael S. Berg argued that “neither defense counsel nor his investigator were allowed an opportunity to enter the home to retrieve potentially exculpatory evidence,” nor were they provided with an inventory of the evidence that was retrieved.
“Papers, journals, and other items in the house may have helped Mr. Jakubec prove his intent or his mental state,” Berg writes. “The alleged explosives in the home might themselves have proved to be harmless, lawfully possessed, or in some other way less inculpatory than the charges suggest.”
He continues that the destruction of the house was in “bad faith” because “the Government claimed that it was too dangerous to even pick up a few pieces of paper off a coffee table, after Mr. Jackubec and his wife and dog had lived in the home for years without a single injury. Yet, the Government claimed it was not too dangerous to set fire to a house full of explosives.”
Berg asks for a “dismissal of the case, suppression of all evidence gleaned from the destroyed house, or a jury instruction highlighting the negative inference at defendant’s eventual trial.”
Back in December, authorities in San Diego County set fire to Jakubec’s Escondido home, after they were forced to suspend their investigation, saying it was too dangerous to enter the house.
Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez described it as the “largest quantity of this type of homemade explosives found in one location in the history of the United States.”
Jakubec was indicted on eight counts by federal prosecutors, who alleged that he “made destructive devices, including nine detonators and 13 grenade hulls with a high amount of explosives,” according to the North Country Times. Included in the indictment were allegations that Jakubec was also involved in three different bank heists, totaling $54,000 in stolen property.
