Student pleads guilty in weapons case

The seminary student who tried to take an arsenal on board a USAir flight pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges Friday.

Roman Regman, 21, said little as he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Thomas McCoun to plead guilty to one count of possessing explosives and three counts of possessing an unregistered firearms.

The guilty plea also means that Regman, who is not an American citizen, might be deported. Regman is from Romania but had been living in Hernando County.

Regman was arrested Aug. 21 trying to board a USAir flight to Pennsylvania, where he was a student at the Orthodox Church of America’s St. Tikhon’s Seminary. Security officers stopped Regman after he told them he had guns in his luggage.

Inside his bags airport police found a 9mm pistol, two hand grenades, six military-style knives, 181 rounds of ammunition and five explosive devices – plus a ski mask, homemade handcuffs and gloves. A homemade silencer and a .22-caliber rifle were found in the Brooksville apartment he shared with his mother.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Craig Alldredge said Regman had ”innocent” intentions for the weapons. Regman wasn’t thinking when he tried to bring them onto an airplane, Alldredge said. ”This is hard on everybody,” Alldredge said. ”One minute you are a young seminarian and the next minute you are wearing a bright orange jumpsuit from the Hillsborough County Jail.”

Regman will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, and could face penalties of up to 10 years in prison on each of the three most serious weapons charges, three years of probation and a $ 250,000 fine. Regman has no prior criminal convictions.

No sentence date has been set.