DES MOINES, Iowa, April 2 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Iowa has ruled mailbox pipe bomb suspect Luke Helder is not mentally fit to stand trial.
Hedler is accused of planting bombs in mailboxes across Iowa and four other states in May 2002. But, attorneys said say he could be free to go unless U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett decides Helder poses a continuing threat, the Des Moines Register reported.
Helder, 22, of Pine Island, Minn., appeared in court Thursday for the first time in more than a year. He is accused of planting 18 pipe bombs in the beginnings of the pattern of a smiley face across the Midwest and injuring six people in five days
When the bombs started exploding, just eight months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, many Iowans feared that even rural areas had become targets. A college student at the time, he was arrested in Nevada.
