YOUNGSTOWN — A city man accused of having homemade bombs in his Hillman Street home on the South Side now is detained in federal custody after a hearing in U.S. District Court.

A criminal complaint filed Jan. 11 alleges Oliver Smith, 51, possessed explosive materials, a firearm and a gun silencer. He was not allowed to have these items because of a previous felony conviction.

The case began with a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent being informed in early October that Smith had a firearm and silencer at his home in the 2800 block of Hillman Street, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint filed against Smith by U.S. attorneys.

He was not allowed to possess the items because of a drug possession conviction in Ohio and aggravated assault in Pennsylvania, the document states.

On Oct. 5, the Mahoning County Adult Parole Authority and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted a home visit at the Hillman address. Smith didn’t answer the door right away, but eventually he did.

Inside, the investigators found a firearm with a silencer and ammunition. Smith was taken to the Mahoning County jail and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Two days later, the FBI searched the home a second time and found two arrows modified and filled with explosive powder, wrapped in tape with nails and tipped with detonators. FBI agents trained in explosives indicated that the arrows were “functional and could explode on impact,” the affidavit states.

Also recovered were two devices filled with explosive powder and filled with ball bearings. They also were deemed to be functional and “would explode upon electrical initiation of the explosive train propelling the ball bearings as shrapnel.”

Investigators also found other explosives-related items, such as primers, chemicals, ball bearings, wires and instructions.

The firearm was later determined to be functional and made in Germany.

The Youngstown Police Department, which was called to assist agents at the scene, released a police report at the time detailing items that were found in the home, such as multiple homemade explosives in the basement and the master bedroom where Smith sleeps.

Smith had an initial appearance in U.S. District on Jan. 21 before Magistrate Judge Carmen Henderson, who ordered Smith to be placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

At a detention hearing Tuesday, Henderson ordered that the case be bound over to a federal grand jury and that Smith remain in detention, ruling that no condition or combination of conditions of bail would reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.

Henderson also found that the “weight of evidence” against Smith is strong, that he has a prior criminal history, a history of violence or use of weapons, and prior failure to appear in court as ordered.

Smith was indicted in November on the initial weapons charge. But at the request of Mahoning County prosecutors, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum dismissed the case Jan. 19 because of the federal criminal complaint being filed against Smith a week earlier.

erunyan@tribtoday.com