Guilty plea entered in Falwell bomb case

A Liberty University student who pleaded not guilty last month to charges of possessing a bomb the night before the Rev. Jerry Falwell's funeral changed his plea in federal court.

Mark David Uhl, 19, had pleaded not guilty during his arraignment July 27, but on Friday pleaded guilty to having an unregistered destructive device. He had been scheduled to go to trial Aug. 9.

He now faces as many as 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in November.

Uhl, who is being held at a jail in Lynchburg, was arrested May 21 after Campbell County authorities who searched the trunk of his car found five bombs that state police agents called "homemade napalm." Campbell authorities have said they do not believe Uhl intended to disrupt Falwell's funeral services or harm the Falwell family.

At a bond hearing in May, a federal agent said Uhl had other plans for violence, including a plot with a friend to disrupt a prom at his former high school in northern Virginia with pepper spray.