Victoria E. Freile

@vfreile

A Webster man who owned a city apartment building where an improvised bomb was set to explode late Monday pleaded not guilty in City Court on Thursday morning.

Eric N. Reynolds, 52, was charged with first-degree criminal possession of a weapon and third-degree arson, both felonies, according to city court documents. The weapons charge was tied to explosives.

Reynolds was arrested after a search of his home Tuesday evening at 64 Kircher Park in Webster.

Reynolds owned the city apartment building at 401 Ridgeway Ave. where city firefighters and later, police bomb squad and arson investigators, went Monday evening after reports of the smell of gasoline. The building, ordered vacated by the city in March, was the subject of multiple code-violation investigations and was in the midst of a foreclosure proceeding.

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Responding firefighters on Monday discovered that an explosive device had in fact gone off, but had failed to ignite pails of gasoline that had been left near the device, according to Battalion Chief James Hartman of the Rochester Fire Department.

Had the gasoline been ignited, the resulting explosion would have blown out windows and doors and possibly the roof, and would have engulfed the building in flames, Hartman said.

Reynolds stood in City Court Thursday next to defense lawyer James Nobles, who after leaving court said he has not been hired to represent Reynolds but did so for the initial arraignment.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Green on Thursday said the one explosive that detonated damaged the interior main hallway at 401 Ridgeway.

Reynolds ":was not the sole property owner," Green said. "It was mortgaged by M& T Bank (Corp.) so they had an interest in the property, and Mr. Reynolds had no right to damage the property as it was damaged."

Reynolds is being held without bail and is due back in court May 22.

VFREILE@Gannett.com