Michael Anthony Adams and Jill Disis

Indianapolis Star

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -— The young girl's mother says she trusted James Wesley Howell. To her, Howell was a "typical" older boy.

But she'd soon regret a decision she made on May 31, she said, when she agreed to let Howell, 20, drive her preteen daughter to a family friend's house.

On Wednesday, Howell was charged with child molestation in Clark County, located in Indiana across the river from Louisville. He is accused of sexually abusing the girl.

The Indiana charge comes the day after Los Angeles County, Calif., officials announced numerous charges against Howell. He faces three felonies — possession of an assault weapon, possession of explosives on a public highway and possession of a high-capacity magazine — and a misdemeanor for possession of a loaded weapon.

Howell was arrested by Santa Monica police Sunday on his way to a gay pride event with weapons and an explosive mixture in his car. In Louisville, Howell also faces charges of speeding, fleeing police and reckless driving following a February incident.

Indiana officials believe Howell left for California after he learned he was under investigation.

"He understood that this child molesting investigation was ongoing and he was in imminent danger of being arrested," Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull told IndyStar.

If convicted, Howell could face up to 17 years in prison, Mull said.

The alleged molestation happened just days before Howell was last seen in Indiana.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case, and interviews conducted by IndyStar with the victim's family, Howell was supposed to take the girl to a family friend's house on May 31.

Before dropping her off, according to court documents, Howell parked the car in Clark State Forest and began kissing and undressing the juvenile.

"At the park, they crawled in the back seat (of Howell's car) and did things they should not have been doing," the victim's mother told IndyStar. IndyStar typically does not name people who are or may have been victims of sexual assault.

The girl does not understand why Howell is in trouble, her mother said. Her daughter considered Howell as a boyfriend, and "she doesn’t see herself as being sexually abused."

The daughter told investigators that she "was never forced" to have sex with Howell, court documents said. The two spoke about getting married after the girl grew old enough, the mother said.

In the days following the incident, Howell started threatening to kill himself and members of the victim's family, according to court documents and the victim's family. And if police officers attempted to arrest him, he would kill them too.

Howell sent a message to someone close to the victim, according to documents, saying Howell was a "sociopath with an automatic."

Howell's criminal history contains run-ins with others in which similar threats are made.

Last October, an ex-boyfriend accused Howell of pointing a rifle at him and threatening to pull the trigger. Howell told Charlestown Police Department officers that he kept his rifle on his shoulder, pointing toward the sky, while telling his ex-boyfriend to leave his property. No arrests were made.

The next day, Howell was accused of pointing a loaded handgun at a neighbor. He was arrested that day, and ordered to forfeit all weapons after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor intimidation charge in April.

An ex-boyfriend told IndyStar that Howell kept a collection of guns in his home. “I don’t know why he had so many,” said Zach Hambrick, 17. “He didn’t hunt. He just had them.”

When Howell was pulled over in Los Angeles County on Sunday, police said they found several weapons and explosives:

• Twenty-five pounds of Shoc-Shot, an explosive used for blowing up targets. The two components needed to make it explosive had been mixed.

• An Anderson Manufacturing AM-115 .223-caliber rifle. The rifle had a round in its chamber and additional rounds in a 30-round magazine attached to it. Another 30-round magazine was taped to the rifle.

• A .30-06 bolt-action rifle with a round in its chamber.

• A .22-caliber Ruger semi-automatic.

Police said they also found a black hood, Taser, handcuffs, buck knife, security badge, additional ammo for the rifles and a five-gallon container of gasoline, according to court documents.

FBI and district attorney’s officials in Los Angeles County declined to comment on how and where Howell obtained the weapons. It remains unclear if he brought them from Indiana or picked them up along the way.

In the molestation investigation in Clark County, according to court documents, detectives recorded a brief statement from Howell on June 7. When they began questioning him about the alleged abuse, Howell asked for a lawyer and was let go.

Five days later, Howell was stopped in California. He remains in jail there on a $2 million bail.