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Some Residents Unable To Return To Explosion Site

Mother: Son Was In Wrong Place At Wrong Time

POSTED: Friday, July 21, 2006
UPDATED: 1:37 pm CDT July 21, 2006

Some residents were told to stay away from an apartment complex where two explosions occurred, KPRC Local 2 reported.

A unit at the Lakeview Apartments in Texas City exploded on Wednesday when a homemade explosive blew up.

Matthew Rugo, 21, was killed. His roommate, Curtis Jetton, 21, was injured.

Authorities set off a controlled explosion in the unit on Thursday to dispose of the remaining unstable explosives.

"There was a lot of different things in there," Brian Goetschius of the Texas City Police Department said. "We couldn't recognize what was in the Tupperware package, what was a small device rolled up in a piece of paper."

Structural engineers determined that 12 units had too much smoke damage to allow residents to return, officials said.

Power has not been restored to several buildings.

"I'm just waiting to see once they get through checking the structure and stuff like that to see what's going to happen next," resident Pat Washington said.

College books littered the area around the exploded apartment on Friday. Rugo majored in biochemistry at the College of the Mainland.

"I was just completely devastated," said Trey Yenger, a friend of Rugo. "I didn’t believe it at first and then I thought about it for a little while and was like, 'Yeah, that's Matty.' He enjoyed doing stuff and blowing things up and it backfired on him."

Jetton suffered minor injuries and was later arrested on charges of filing a false police report and possession of explosives.

"It appears they were just messing with an explosive substance and it went off," Goetschius said.

Court documents showed Rugo had a history of drug abuse and was to be sentenced on a burglary charge in Austin County, which he pleaded guilty to.

Jetton's Mother Talks About Her Son's Condition

Jetton's mother said her son is not mentally stable.

"He is on the verge of breaking down," said Cheryl Dutton. "He's crying a lot. He said it should have been him instead of Matt dying. He's getting suicidal."

Texas City police said Jetton gave them false information about Wednesday's blast. His mother said he did that because Jetton has ADHD, is bipolar and is not taking medication.

"He's just like scattering," Dutton said. "He's going to go from one extreme to the other. Sometimes there may be some skipping around."

Dutton talked to her son inside the Texas City Jail. Jetton has since been moved to the Galveston County Jail.

"He said Matt used to make up these little bombs," Dutton said. "Him and this other guy up in Houston would go out in a field and explode them."

Dutton said her son was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Curtis has not had a history of this before," Dutton said.

Jetton's mother said he cleans oil tanks for a living. A computer inside the apartment showed he was looking at pictures of the rigs online shortly before the blast. Dutton said investigators are using that against her son.

"That's when he broke down and he said they started questioning him about the rig and saying that he was some type of terrorist. They were trying to throw that at him. He told them, 'It was just part of my job.'"

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