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Friday, Aug. 1, 2008 Gaithersburg teen arrested in connection to firearms case Bethesda man arrested earlier this week is being held on $1 million bond by Patricia M. Murret and Bradford Pearson | Staff Writers
J. Adam Fenster⁄The Gazette Investigators gather outside a home in the 6300 block of Rockhurst Road in Bethesda on Tuesday where they found a cache of weapons, ammunition and explosive materials. 
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A second teenager has been charged in connection with the illegal weapons and explosives found in a Bethesda home this week.
The 17-year-old Gaithersburg resident surrendered Friday afternoon to county police at the 1st District Police Station in Rockville. He was charged as a juvenile with theft, computer misuse and conspiracy, said county spokeswoman Lucille Baur.
Police said the boy, who worked as an intern at the 1st District Station since May 19, was an accomplice to Colin McKenzie-Gude, 18, of Bethesda, who was arrested twice this week on firearms and explosives charges.
McKenzie-Gude remained in jail Friday on $1 million bond. He surrendered to police on Wednesday, was arrested on illegal weapons and explosives charges and released on $115,000 bond. The next day, he was arrested again and charged with detonating homemade explosives in July 2007 in Gaithersburg. His father, Joseph Lane Gude Jr., 62, has been charged with buying firearms for his child and perjury.
A bond hearing Friday for McKenzie-Gude, a 2008 graduate of St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., was postponed until Monday.
The 17-year-old’s aunt told The Gazette that she notified police about the explosives after finding research about chemicals, a St. John’s staff directory and blank ‘‘Montgomery County Police” stationery in her nephew’s bedroom. County fire and explosives investigators said the stationery was used to buy the weapons found in McKenzie-Gude’s home, according to charging documents.
The 17-year-old’s aunt said the boy, also a student at St. John’s, was ‘‘brainwashed” by McKenzie-Gude.
‘‘He looked up to him,” the 17-year-old’s father said. ‘‘It was always ‘Colin’s so smart. Colin’s so this, Colin’s so that.’”
The aunt and father said McKenzie-Gude and the 17-year-old were almost inseparable at times. Both were members of the St. John’s competitive air rifle team and belonged to the school’s JROTC program.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, McKenzie-Gude’s mother, Debra McKenzie-Gude, said the family had ‘‘nothing to say.”
The new charges for McKenzie-Gude arose after Montgomery County Fire and Rescue investigators and a police forensics team found evidence that pipe bombs had been detonated in a field near Brink Road and Route 124 in Gaithersburg.
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