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Man sentenced for phony bombs

David P. Vice gets 15 years for distributing fake explosives and threatening letters with white powder in 2005.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published July 27, 2006

An Oldsmar man charged with sending his neighbors threatening letters with white powder and putting fake explosives at a post office and hotel has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

David P. Vice, 43, pleaded no contest Tuesday to four charges of using a hoax bomb during a 32-hour frenzy in January 2005. He faced a minimum of just over eight years in prison; the maximum punishment was 50 years.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Dee Anna Farnell sentenced Vice to 15 years in prison during a plea hearing at which he made comments about the war in Iraq and conspiracies regarding the origins of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said his attorney, Joseph Hobson.

Hobson said he considered using an insanity defense, but Vice would not let him.

"My client would not authorize it," Hobson said. "In the final analysis, it's his call."

Pinellas County sheriff's deputies arrested Vice on Jan. 23, 2005, after several of his neighbors found envelopes filled with powder in their mailboxes. Deputies also were summoned to a Holiday Inn Express to inspect a possible explosive device and to the local post office, where a fake hand grenade had been attached to a package.

Deputies said Vice was responsible for all the envelopes and the fake bombs.

Hobson said Vice committed the acts to protest the war in Iraq and because he believes he is a messenger from God.

The threats Vice made came after several years during which neighbors watched him with increasing unease.

Vice, his wife Lisa, and their four sons moved to Oldsmar in 1998.

The next year, after Vice quit his job, neighbors said, his behavior changed. Vice bought a black Corvette and a military-issue Hummer, and he spent late nights working on it. He often sat out front all day, smoking, drinking Pepsi and talking to kids about Islam.

In late 2002, the family disappeared for several months, going to Moab, Utah, where they stayed at a free campsite off the interstate.

They returned around Thanksgiving 2002 with a homeless man and a little dog whose barking soon prompted neighbors to complain to the Sheriff's Office.

Within months, Vice began walking around the neighborhood in a long white robe. He filed for bankruptcy protection from his creditors in January 2003.

On Sept. 11, 2004, Vice crashed his car into MacDill Air Force Base. When arrested, he was wearing a green flight suit and the sides of his head were shaved. Authorities found a laptop computer, ammunition and antigovernment leaflets in his car.

Vice was charged with fleeing and eluding the police and served about 30 days in jail. He pleaded no contest and was given two years' probation. It was Vice's first felony offense.

Vice's home, at 520 Cypress View Drive, has been foreclosed on, according to court records. Vice's wife, Lisa, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

[Last modified July 26, 2006, 22:17:49]