Man pleads guilty to airport weapons charge

A Brooksville man stuck to an agreement with federal prosecutors Friday and pleaded guilty to putting a bag of weapons and explosives through a metal detector at Tampa International Airport.

Roman Christian Regman, a 21-year-old seminary student, appeared Friday in the baggy orange coveralls of a Hillsborough County Jail inmate. He told U.S. Magistrate Thomas McCoun that he didn’t want a trial on six federal weapons charges that each could mean five to 10 years in prison and $ 250,000 fines. Regman, who is Romanian, also could be deported, McCoun said.

”How do you plead?” McCoun asked Regman after explaining the possible sentences.

Regman closed his eyes behind large-frame glasses, paused a moment, and quietly said, ”I plead guilty.”

”You have some hesitation there,” the magistrate said. ”Are you sure this is what you wish to do?”

”Yes,” Regman replied.

With that, Regman confirmed an agreement he signed with prosecutors Oct. 22 stating he would plead guilty to four charges of bringing illegal guns and explosives into an airport. In exchange, prosecutors dropped two charges that Regman tried to bring the cache of weapons aboard a plane.

Regman was stopped Aug. 31 after he put a duffel bag through the metal detectors guarding Tampa’s USAir gates. Regman had a USAir ticket to fly via Pittsburgh to Scranton, Pa., where he attended St. Tikhon Seminary.

Inside the bag, authorities said, they found a 9mm Beretta handgun, several knives, several explosives and explosive materials, two inoperative hand grenades, gun powder, fuses and seven 35mm film canisters full of flammable powder.

After Regman’s arrest, a search of the Brooksville apartment he shared with his mother revealed a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle and a homemade silencer.

When offered a chance to dispute those facts before McCoun on Friday, Regman declined. A man dressed as a priest, who said he was a family friend, sat in the audience but declined to comment. No other friends or family attended.

Craig Alldredge, Regman’s assistant federal public defender, has said Regman meant to check the duffel bag, but because he had never been to a U.S. airport, got confused and mistakenly put it through the metal detector. It was still illegal to have the weapons, Alldredge said.

But why would Regman need a gun and explosives on a return trip to his seminary?

”He maintains there is an innocent explanation,” Alldredge said Friday.

Regman probably will explain when he is sentenced in late January or early February, Alldredge said.

In the next few months, the U.S. probation office will investigate Regman’s background and recommend a sentencing range to U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday.

Merryday may reduce Regman’s sentence because the plea agreement said he accepted responsibility for the weapons charges.

”I’m always hoping for the best for my clients,” Alldredge said, ”but as a practical matter, Mr. Regman is facing some very serious charges.”