A 78-year-old man has pleaded guilty to keeping explosives inside his Westover apartment.
Charles Wallace Peters faces a maximum of 10 years in prison following his Tuesday plea, according to Virginia statute.
Peters was initially charged with five counts of manufacturing, using or possessing an explosive device but had the other four counts dropped as part of the plea agreement, according to court records.
The plea comes nearly four months after local and federal authorities raided Peters’ residence in Fisher House Apartments at 5705 Washington Blvd.
Members of the Arlington County Fire Department’s Bomb Squad and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were seen coming and going from the building on Aug. 30, removing a variety of items from Peters’ apartment.
Among the items being carried by personnel was a heavily padded container labeled “frag bag.” Court documents allude to a report made by Arlington’s fire marshal, though no information regarding what items were obtained during the search was made public.
Peters’ arrest came in the days after numerous local residents tipped ARLnow off to periodic sounds of explosions, often occurring at night or early in the morning.
“Residents in Dominion Hills / Bluemont / Westover / Bon Air hear a distinct gunshot/firework type sound twice a day — once in the early morning and once at night,” one resident told ARLnow. “Typically around ~6am and ~9pm but as late as 11:30pm recently. It is reliably twice a day.”
Another tipster provided a similar description.
“I live in Dominion Hills neighborhood… It has been about a month that we had been hearing a loud boom in our neighborhood,” the resident wrote. “Either very early in the morning between 6 to 7 a.m. or after 10:30 p.m. The sound is hard enough to sometimes make the windows shake.”
Peters’ next appearance in Arlington circuit court is scheduled for Feb. 14.
