TWO PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN SERIES OF VISTA EXPLOSIONS

New details emerged in court this week as two of three people arrested in connection with a handful of explosions in Vista last week pleaded not guilty to several felonies, including igniting destructive devices.

Two of the three bombs that exploded May 3 were glass bottles, the third was a pipe bomb. All three had similarities: a time fuse, sulfur, aluminum powder and flash power, according to the prosecutor handling the case.

Valentin Castaneda, 25, faces 16 charges, from bomb and weapons possession to a felony evading count stemming from a high-speed chase on Vista streets before he was caught and arrested May 6. He faces more than 15 years in custody if convicted.

Co-defendant Caleigh Tabler, 21, faces four counts, including possessing and exploding destructive devices and accessory after the fact. She faces more than seven years in custody if convicted.

The defendants were arraigned Wednesday in Vista Superior Court. Castaneda was not present but was represented by his attorney, and Tabler appeared remotely from jail.

Deputy District Attorney David Jarman said Superior Court Judge Laura Duffy granted his request to keep the defendants jailed without bail.

Jarman said he made the request “because of the sheer pandemonium these defendants caused.”

Neither of the attorneys representing the defendants immediately responded to requests for comment.

A third defendant, Juan Jose Castaneda Santiago — younger brother of Valentin Castaneda — was arrested during the investigation, but he bailed out of jail last weekend. The 22-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned May 17 on five charges, including accessory after the fact.

The motive behind the bombs is unclear, and Jarman declined comment. When sheriff’s officials announced the arrests in the case last weekend, they said there appeared to be no specific target for the explosions.

Jarman said the investigation started May 3 — before the blasts — when a passerby spotted a suspicious device in a church parking lot on Williamston Street off East Vista Way. The Sheriff ’s Department’s Bomb/Arson squad rendered it safe, he said.

The explosions started the next day — three in a three-hour stretch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. May 4. The first was in the church parking lot, the next two were in nearby neighborhoods, Jarman said. No one was hurt, and nothing was damaged.

By May 6, witness statements and surveillance video led investigators to a black car they believed was linked to the case. They kept eyes on the vehicle, parked in Vista.

Just after midnight Saturday, they saw Valentin Castaneda and Tabler get into the car, Jarman said. Deputies tried to pull it over, he said, but Castaneda took off, leading them on a 2-mile chase on Vista surface streets that hit 120 mph.

Jarman said both defendants tossed destructive devices and vials of flash powder as they fled. “Several different objects came flying out of that car,” he said.

The fleeing car ended up trapped in a cul-de-sac, and Castaneda and Tabler were arrested.

The investigation led detectives to two side-by-side homes linked to the Castaneda family. Within the two homes, they found a bombmaking station and loaded guns, including an AK-47, Jarman said.

They also found three children in the homes, including an infant.