San Jose man charged in PG&E transformer bombings now faces federal indictment

SAN JOSE — A man already jailed and charged locally with planting bombs on PG&E electrical transformers in South San Jose now faces a federal indictment for the same alleged crimes, according to authorities and court records.

Peter Karasev, 36, of San Jose, was indicted by a federal criminal grand jury Oct. 19. The indictment accuses him of two counts of damaging the property of an energy facility, and one count of using fire or an explosive to commit a federal felony.

Karasev has been in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas since his arrest March 1 by San Jose police following an investigation into two explosions reported Dec. 8 — outside the Macy’s department store at Westfield Oakridge Mall — and Jan. 5 at Snell Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard.

The mall bombing was discovered retroactively, after police began investigating the more recent case where a transformer exploded and caused damage to surrounding buildings, including blowing out the windows of a dental office. All told, 1,000 customers lost power because of the explosions.

Karasev was charged in Santa Clara County with two counts of igniting a destructive device, one count of arson, two counts of interfering with electrical lines, a count of possessing bomb-making materials, and three counts of felony child endangerment. The latter counts stem from allegations he conducted bomb-making activities with his three young children living in the same home.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether the federal and county prosecutions will proceed in parallel or if one will take precedence over the other.

Around the time Karasev’s arrest was announced, his Potomac Court home near Gunderson High School was the scene of an extensive multi-day warrant search by San Jose police, who were later joined by explosives specialists with the FBI and the National Guard because of the breadth of explosive materials they were finding.

A combination of surveillance video, including from a parked Tesla, and mobile phone ping tracking were used by police to pinpoint who was in the areas during the early-morning explosions. That search led them to suspect Karasev, according to an investigative summary accompanying the local criminal complaint.

Surveillance video showed a person riding a bicycle toward the Jan. 5 alleged bombing site — a strip mall in the southwest corner of Snell and Santa Teresa —  a few minutes before the explosion. That footage showed the person leaving a backpack next to the transformer and bicycling away, followed by the blast.

PG&E workers reportedly told investigators that the transformer damage “was in an inward direction,” and “believed the cause was from an external explosive device.”

Both transformer explosions occurred between 1:45 a.m. and 3 a.m., and similarities between the two instances — the same general location, time and method — led San Jose detectives to suspect one person was behind them. The cell phone tracking found one device was present at and around both scenes, and a cell-service warrant revealed Karasev landed in the overlap, police said.

Investigators also interviewed a woman identifying as the mother of Karasev’s three children, according to police. She reportedly confirmed that he would go on late-night bicycle rides, and police stated they recovered a mountain bike at Karasev’s home that shared similar features with the one recorded on surveillance near the Jan. 5 explosion.

Detectives summarized a post-arrest interview with Karasev in the criminal case file, in which he reportedly told interrogators that he thought he had been arrested because he had been testing out model rockets, as one explanation for his alleged possession of explosive materials.

Federal court records show that Karasev is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on the new charges Nov. 9 in San Jose. In the county case, his next court date is set for Dec. 6. He remains in county jail custody where he is being held without bail.