Honors student charged with bottle bombs

SAN YSIDRO, Calif., June 16 (UPI) -- An honors student at a Southern California high school has been charged with setting off bottle bombs as a prank on the last day of school.

A spokesman for the San Diego County District Attorney's Office said Elphbert Laforteza, 18, faces three felony counts, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday.

Five of the bombs, 2-liter plastic bottles filled with an explosive chemical mix, went off in a trash can at San Ysidro High School on June 5. No one was injured.

Officials said San Diego Fire-Rescue detonated three more and police found four more in the process of manufacture.

Laforteza could be sentenced to 13 years in prison if he is convicted of all charges. Hector Espinoza, the San Ysidro High School principal, said that would be "somewhat disastrous."

"He's got to be held accountable, but that accountability needs to be tempered with common sense and good judgment," Espinoza said.