Teen found with rifle at school pleads guilty

Jake Howell, the Las Vegas teenager arrested last month with an unloaded semiautomatic rifle inside his car at the Northwest Career and Technical Academy, pleaded guilty in District Court to a weapons charge Thursday.

Howell, 19, who has attracted the interest of federal anti-terrorism agents, entered a guilty plea to a single count of possession of a dangerous weapon on school property.

The gross misdemeanor charge draws a maximum one year in the Clark County Detention Center.

Howell, in custody at the detention center since his Dec. 21 arrest, is to be sentenced before District Judge Jerome Tao on April 4. He is undergoing a psychological evaluation.

As part of his plea deal, Howell agreed to forfeit the rifle, described as an SKS Russian assault weapon, and a 16-inch bayonet and two knives also were found in his car.

Before Howell was arrested, FBI agents assigned to the Southern Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed him about his ties to a jailed teen accused of making chilling comments that, in part, promoted school violence.

That teen, 18-year-old Steven Matthew Fernandes, is in federal custody facing firearms and explosives charges investigated by the FBI-led terrorism task force.

Authorities think Howell and Fernandes were "best friends" and graduated together from the technical academy.

Concerns were raised that friends of Fernandes might try to do harm at the school in retaliation for the charges brought against him.

Authorities say he has claimed to be the commanding officer of the 327th Nevada Militia, a small urban survivalist unit.

According to Howell's arrest report, the technical academy's principal identified Howell as an associate of Fernandes.

Howell admitted in his interview with the FBI that he and Fernandes started the militia group, but he denied being part of a plot against the school.

The rumors of school threats here followed the deaths of 20 children and six adults in the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting on Dec. 14.

Agents found Howell's unloaded rifle, rounds of ammunition and the other weapons inside his 2005 Hyundai Elantra after he consented to a search.

Howell, who indicated he now lives in Utah, told police he loaded his car with survival gear to be prepared for the "society collapse" predicted by the Dec. 21 end of the Mayan calendar, the arrest report said.

Besides the rifle and ammunition, Howell's car contained military-style uniforms, camouflage backpacks, shovels, a small stove, food items, water, tools, clothes and personal items, the report said.

FBI agents are reviewing evidence seized in September from Fernandes to determine whether to charge Howell in the federal firearms case.

Fernandes was arrested Sept. 13 with a loaded shotgun in his Saturn coupe as he was going to work at a local RadioShack.

Agents later found explosives and bomb-making materials and devices in his bedroom, with a copy of "The Anarchist Cookbook," federal prosecutors have alleged.

Fernandes bragged to a confidential informant about wanting to "go to a nursery school and use kids for target practice" and kill more people than the shooter who fatally wounded 12 moviegoers in July in Aurora, Colo., according to federal authorities.

His trial before U.S. District Judge James Mahan was continued until April 17 while he undergoes a psychological evaluation sought by his defense.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.