In police interview, Bay says Landstown arrest ruined dream

VIRGINIA BEACH

Philip Bay folds his hands, bows his head and crosses himself at a small table inside a police interview room as he waits for his mother to return with a detective.

When investigator Roger Frederick arrives, he tells Bay he wants to know everything about an alleged plot against Landstown High School.

On Wednesday, the third day of Bay's trial, that was some of what jurors watched during three hours of the interview recorded with police more than two years ago. The prosecution then rested its case against the now 19-year-old defendant accused of contriving a plan to kill at least 30 people with homemade bombs and sawed-off shotguns at his school.

In the interview, Bay starts with a minutes-long monologue about an interest in explosives that dated to middle school.

He began making gunpowder in 11th grade, an idea he gleaned from the History Channel and perfected from online instructions, he says. "I could probably go to your house, go to your kitchen sink and rig something up."

It was his arrest at Landstown two years earlier for possessing a hoax explosive device that set him plotting.

"I wanted to leave a lasting impression on the world with music," Bay tells Frederick. "They ruined my dreams of music."

He went from the "eccentric composer with the long hair," he says, to "the crazy Unabomber guy with the long hair."

He refers to another student accused in the alleged plot. Brandyn Golias, 15 at the time, is credited with thwarting the attack.

"Brandyn didn't know how to keep his damn mouth shut," Bay says, then shifts much of the blame on the now 17-year-old. He says neither would go through with an attack on his own.

Golias and a second teenage defendant, James Hokaj, have pleaded guilty in juvenile court to possessing or using a sawed-off shotgun and possessing weapons of terrorism. A judge deferred findings on the latter charge. Both testified for the prosecution and will be sentenced in December.

In the police interview, Bay speaks matter-of-factly and exhaustively - and contradicts himself at times. Often, he talks of the alleged plot hypothetically. He references literature and the composer Johann Sebastian Bach and quotes from the Bible.

Bay leans back in his seat, props an arm across the chair and sticks a hand in his pocket. He removes his dark hooded sweatshirt and replaces it.

"I thought... we were supposed to unleash wrath. If it couldn't be stopped, it must be a thing from God. I still think God is on our side. That's why I'm so calm and collected."

Bay had refused to talk to detectives without his mother in the interview room. About three hours in, Bay's mother interjects. "God doesn't come to people and send them out to kill others... I really thought he was more together. But he's very, very frail."

Bay's attorneys have said he was legally insane at the time because of untreated mental illnesses. To prove insanity, they will have to convince jurors that a mental illness or defect made him incapable of knowing right from wrong.

The jury will be asked to decide whether Bay is guilty, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity. If he's convicted, Bay could face life in prison. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, he'd receive evaluations to determine whether he could return to society or required detention and treatment.

The defense begins its case this morning.

Prior to resuming the trial Wednesday, Judge William O'Brien ordered three staff members of The Virginian-Pilot to report Dec. 3 for a contempt-of-court hearing.

At issue are photos that appeared on PilotOnline.com that depicted images of Golias and Hokaj. They were taken from video images played in Circuit Court on Tuesday.

O'Brien ordered the newspaper staffers to show why they should not be held in contempt for "failure to comply with an oral order of the Court" and with provisions of the state's statute concerning cameras in courts.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5131, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com