Prosecution Details Philadelphia Artist's Familiarity With Firecrackers as It Presses WMD Case
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Prosecutors today played for a jury an old confession in a different case as they press for a conviction against a Philadelphia artist, now charged in connection with an explosion that severely injured his hand.
Last May, the prosecution in this latest case says, Douglas Ferrin was making bombs at his house. The defense describes them as homemade firecrackers. Ferrin has been charged with possessing weapons of mass destruction.
Ferrin has a previous conviction for blowing up a toilet in the bathroom of a Phoenixville pub in 2011, and today the Philadelphia jury heard Ferrin's videotaped Chester County confession in the previous case, in which Ferrin admitted he threw one of his homemade firecrackers into the toilet to get back at the bartender for tossing him out of Molly Maguire's Pub.
There were no injuries in that incident -- Ferrin said he made sure no one else was in the restroom -- but an officer testified the toilet was shattered and pieces were driven into the ceiling, the lights were damaged, and people rushed out of the bar during the chaos.
The prosecution has now rested, and the judge in the current case quickly dismissed a couple of the charges against Ferrin for lack of evidence, including one for risking a catastrophe, because, the judge said, there wasn't significant danger posed to his neighbor's house.