RIVERTON, Utah -- A beauty queen and her three friends have been charged with felonies for allegedly tossing homemade bombs in Riverton.
Prosecutors filed four second-degree felony charges for possessing bombs against Kendra Gill, who is currently Miss Riverton. Three other 18 year olds face the same charges.
"Do I think they should be punished for it? Absolutely," said Gill’s neighbor Travis Reginek
However, Reginek feels the charges are too harsh.
"I think it's just ridiculous, have some community service, a misdemeanor charge, a $50 fine, let them go explain the importance of safety to elementary schools," Reginek said.
Unified Fire Officials said the teens threw the devices on driveways while driving around neighborhoods. They’re also accused of throwing the homemade bombs at people, but in charging documents, the teens said they didn’t throw them at strangers. As a joke, they targeted a couple of their friends who were walking home from a concert. They said it was all intended to simply scare their friends.
"I don't believe they were thrown at people as a hostile thing,” Reginek said. “I think it was them throwing them with their friends.”
Salt Lake County prosecutor Blake Nakamura spoke about the charges.
"What we charged them with was something reflective of what they did, we didn't feel the need to put the gang enhancement and hit them with everything we could,” he said.
Originally, Unified Fire officials said they found 10 devices. It turns out it was actually four, according to the charging documents. The bombs were plastic water bottles filled with The Works toilet bowl cleaner and fragments of aluminum foil.
FOX 13 tried to talk with Kendra Gill, but she wasn’t home and her father said he would make a statement with their attorney at a later point.
As of Friday night, it appears Gill still has her Miss Riverton crown. The pageant’s director told FOX 13 News earlier this week that no action would be taken because charges had not been filed. We’ll keep you updated if that changes.
