Bartender convicted on gun charges, acquitted of bomb accusation

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 10:41 a.m.

"This is a great relief," attorney John Aebi said after the U.S. District Court jury announced its verdict Thursday. "The pipe bomb counts are the only reason that we went to trial."

Robert Storms was convicted of four counts involving the conversion of a semi-automatic weapon into an illegal one that was fully automatic and one count of possession of material used to make a bomb -- a length of plastic pipe tainted by gunpowder residue.

He was found innocent of six counts of making and selling pipe bombs. Jurors received the case Dec. 30, but Thursday was only their fourth scheduled full day of deliberations because of the New Year's holiday break.

During the trial, Aebi and Storms conceded the gun charges, which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while the minimum on the bomb counts is 10 years.

Aebi said he hoped Judge David Hagen would consider Storms' honesty on the witness stand and would opt for 24-36 months in prison at the April 20 sentencing.

Federal prosecutors initially said Storms, his brother and a third defendant were involved in anti-government militia activities in Virginia City, but never pressed the point during the trial.

Aebi said his client was entrapped by a government informant who urged him to make the bombs during an investigation that began in October 1996.

"The informant really went above and beyond the call of his duty to entrap these young men," he said. "The government went looking for conspiracy in the Storey County sheriff's office and it turned out that all they could do was to get him to convert machine guns."

Storms, 30, testified during the trial that he and his brother Kevin, a reserve deputy in Storey County, sold a weapon to make an $800 down payment on a pickup truck. Kevin Storms pleaded guilty to machine gun and pipe bomb charges in October and is awaiting sentencing.

Another man, former sheriff's deputy Griffith Evan Rausch Jr., was scheduled for a change of plea hearing on the same day, but the outcome is unknown because his court proceeding was sealed.