Man charged with burning UNC-CH tree released on bond
A man charged with setting off an explosion last month that burned an iconic tree on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus and injured a professor who tried to put out the fire was released from jail Monday into his father's custody.
Joshua Daniel Edwards, 24, is charged with malicious use of explosives to inflict injury, malicious use of explosives to damage property, assembling a weapon of mass destruction, setting fire to grass or a grassland, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and filing a false police report in the Nov. 2 incident.
Police said a small device detonated next to the Davie Poplar tree, which was planted when UNC-Chapel Hill was founded more than two centuries ago. Physics and astronomy Professor Dan Reichart suffered burns on on his face and arms when the explosion caused a fireball to erupt around him.
Douglas Edwards agreed to keep watch over his son, a former UNC-Chapel Hill student, at their home in Davidson County and ensure he could receive mental health treatment, starting Tuesday.
District Court Judge Beverly Scarlett raised Joshua Edwards' bond from $200,000 secured to $1 million unsecured as a condition of his release. So, if he violates any conditions of his pre-trial release, including staying off UNC property and having any contact with Reichart, a warrant will go out for his arrest with $1 million secured bond.
Scarlett warned Douglas Edwards that he could also be in trouble if he doesn't hold his son to the conditions she set out for his release.
Orange County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Nieman disagreed with letting Joshua Edwards out on bond, calling the crime "a dangerous offense."
"The evidence is pretty strong that he set an explosive device by a monument with the intent to, it appears with the intent to make some kind of a political statement, and it ended up exploding and seriously injuring somebody," Nieman said.
Defense attorney Natasha Adams said going home is best for Joshua Edwards, so that he can get the mental health treatment he needs.
"I think mental health will come into play with respect to his defense, and I do believe we have now set up a plan for him that, if he follows, will put him in a better position to help me in defending him at the appropriate time," Adams said.
