U.S. Man Charged In Bolivian Bombings

Has History Of Mental Problems, Describes Self As 'Superman Of Loosers'

(AP)  A mentally disturbed American accused of killing two people and wounding seven by setting off bombs in Bolivian hotels said Thursday that he had "done nothing" wrong as a Bolivian judge formally charged him and his Uruguayan lover with murder and falsifying documents.

Triston Jay Amero, 24, and his pregnant partner, Alda Ribeiro, 45, were ordered held in "preventive detention" pending trial by Judge Williams Davila, who said he would evaluate Amero's request for a psychiatric evaluation as well as the pregnant Ribeiro's request for a medical exam.

The bombings were denounced as "terrorist" by an angry President Evo Morales, prompting an equally emphatic response from the U.S. State Department, which said the Bolivian leader's remark harmed their governments' efforts to cooperate against terrorism.

As it turns out, Amero has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since he was 7 years old after making constant threats of suicide and violence against authorities, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press. He also spent years in California's juvenile prisons after being convicted of fleeing the scene of an accident and spitting on a judge and court clerk.

He even created lists of people he would kill when released — including his mother, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

"Amero keeps to himself and appears to like to be seen as a rebel and outlaw," corrections officials wrote in court documents.

Bolivian authorities have struggled to understand the motives of a man who has described himself as a Saudi Arabian lawyer, a pagan high priest, a notary public and even a vampire, having adopted "Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo" as his name, a variation on the character in Anne Rice's dark novels, played on film by Tom Cruise.

But this "Lestat" isn't the Hollywood type — in a blog from Colombia two years ago, he described himself as "so repulsive in apearance and dress and religeous practice to the women of Colombia that even prostitutes wilnot take My Money."(sic)

Amero did eventually find a woman — Ribeiro — who said Thursday that her "husband" was alone responsible for the bombings. Police said they weren't sure if the two were formally married.

"He has done something very bad against Bolivia and against these innocent people," Ribeiro said in a television interview from jail. "He did all this behind my back, I didn't know anything about this."

Amero also was interviewed — saying "I am sorry about the victims," but denying he was guilty.

Amero obtained a "world passport" under his given name in 2003 and changed it in 2004 to Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo, said David Gallup, president and general counsel of the World Service Authority, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group. The group's Web site says it "represents the inalienable human right of freedom of travel on planet Earth."

Amero regularly updated Gallup on his exploits, and the group has kept an extensive file, documenting his travel to Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia, as well as his efforts to renounce his U.S. citizenship and his time in jail in Argentina, where police said he tried to bomb an ATM machine.