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Tampa teenager pleads no contest in Freedom High bomb plot

 
Published Oct. 16, 2012

TAMPA — Jared Cano pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges he tried to make a bomb in his bedroom and plotted to blow up Freedom High School in 2011. He will be sentenced Dec. 5 by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Kimberly Fernandez. Cano, now 18, was 17 when police found what they called bomb-making materials at his home. They also found a journal and Internet searches for bomb recipes. Police had received a tip from one of Cano's friends, saying the boy planned to detonate a bomb at the New Tampa school that would kill more people than at Columbine High School and at Virginia Tech. His attorney, Norman Cannella, said sentencing guidelines call for a year in prison. Cano has been jailed for the past 14 months.