Mr Andrew Cecil Schneck, 25 years old, has seen many prisons in his lifetime already, and many bombs for that matter. He arrived in court today to hear when his trail will take place
In an amazing twist, the young man who was just last year released early from prison after getting convicted in 2014 for storing explosives at his parents' property, got arrested again over the summer.
Back in August, a park ranger, Ms Tamara Curtis, spotted young Mr Schneck near the 1905 marble statue of Major Richard Dowling in Hermann Park (the white marble statue of Dowling, an Irish immigrant who lived in Houston and fought for the Confederacy, was erected to honor rebel soldiers who died at the Battle of Sabine Pass).
Mr Schneck was clearly holding explosives in his hand ( made with a homemade detonator, a timer, wiring, a battery, a bottle of nitroglycerin and an explosive organic compound known as HMTD, hexamethylene triperoxide diamine), and when she approached him, she asked him about the device.
Was he trying to harm the statue? Yes, he said. He didn't like the guy.
After being confronted by Ms Curtis, Mr Schneck tried to drink some of the liquid explosives but "immediately spit the liquid on the ground … then proceeded to pour the contents of the bottle on the ground next to him," according to the park ranger’s statement.
That late-night confrontation, detailed in court records by a federal agent, led to the arrest Mr Schneck, and set off a two day operation that forced the evacuation of the tony Rice University neighborhood where Schneck lives with his parents.
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The arrest, about 11 p.m. on an August Saturday, was following a day of protests and counter-protests over another controversial statue in Houston, the Spirit of the Confederacy. At the time, the "Destroy the Confederacy" protest drew hundreds but ended without incident.
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