A Windsor man is facing a charge of possessing explosive-making material after deputies answering a report of gunfire found a lab at the property and a later search of his phone turned up evidence he had been shopping for bomb ingredients, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ryan Carter, 39, was detained July 3 after deputies from the sheriff’s office and the Windsor Police Department went to the 1100 block of Windsor River Road on reports that a tenant was firing a gun into the ground, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.
While securing the property, deputies found what the agency described as “a lab containing chemicals and glassware.” The sheriff’s office said investigators believed the setup was “either bomb-making materials or a drug lab.” The release does not say which it turned out to be.
Detectives from the department’s narcotics and bomb units went to the scene and served a search warrant at the residence.
Carter was arrested on two felony counts — possession of an assault weapon, and possession of drugs while armed — along with misdemeanor counts of discharging a firearm, possession of drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, the sheriff’s office said.
The explosives charge came later, and it came from his phone.
A forensic examination of the device turned up evidence that Carter “researched and attempted to purchase materials needed for making explosives,” according to the release. On that basis, the sheriff’s office bomb unit obtained a second search warrant.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives helped serve that warrant July 9. Carter was then charged with possession of explosive-making material.
A bail enhancement was granted and his bail was set at $100,000, the sheriff’s office said. The release does not say who granted it.
What the release does not say
The sheriff’s office account, issued under case number 260703-013, leaves three things open, and each one bears on how serious the case really is.
It does not say what the chemicals and glassware in the lab actually were. Eleven days after deputies first walked onto the property, the agency’s public description remains the one it gave at the outset: the setup could have been for making bombs, or it could have been for making drugs.
It makes no mention of any completed explosive device being recovered — not at the first search, and not at the second one the ATF helped carry out.
And it does not say whether the Sonoma County district attorney has filed charges. What the sheriff’s office describes are the counts Carter was arrested and charged with. The decision on what, if anything, to prosecute belongs to the district attorney.
The distinction between what was found and what was searched for runs through the whole case. The two felony counts are a weapons charge and a narcotics charge. The explosives count does not rest on explosives recovered from the glassware. It rests on what investigators say Carter was looking up and trying to buy.
Carter has been charged. He has not been convicted of anything.
This account is drawn entirely from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s public statement on the case. The Wine Country Gazette has not independently reviewed the search warrants, the booking record or any court filing. The story will be updated as the sheriff’s office, the district attorney and the courts add to the record.