Bruce Paddock, the brother of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, appeared in court in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 27, to face child pornography charges.
He pleaded not guilty to one count of possession of images of child pornography and 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, ABC News reported.
According to court documents, images of child pornography were found on his computer in 2014 at an auto body shop in Sun Valley, California, where he had been squatting. A felony complaint alleges that between Jan. 2014 and Aug. 2014, he possessed over 600 images of child or youth pornography.
He also allegedly tinkered with the electrical and plumbing system in the shop, building himself a remote-controlled elevator that kept others from accessing the attic, and threatened to kill the shop’s owner when he was evicted, NBC News reported.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, he was arrested at an assisted living facility in North Hollywood.
The reason it took so long to arrest him, police said, was because they couldn’t find him once he became homeless.
Bruce Paddock, 58, was wheeled into court in a wheelchair, and his public defender asked that the judge release him back to the assisted living facility with an ankle bracelet, saying Bruce Paddock was in severe pain from several back surgeries.
“There’s nowhere he’s going to be able to go anyway,” said the attorney, Mearl Lottman, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The judge declined that request. Bruce Paddock will have to stay behind bars until his bail hearing, scheduled for Oct. 3.
Earlier in the week, Bruce Paddock told several media that he hadn’t been in contact with his brother, Stephen Paddock, 64, for a decade.
According to police, Stephen Paddock shot and killed at least 58 people and injured hundreds more during a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip the night of Oct. 1. He then reportedly took his own life before police were able to enter his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, from where he shot down at a crowd of some 22,000.
Authorities have questioned Bruce Paddock about their childhood, trying to understand a motive for the shooting.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said there was no connection between the LAPD’s investigation into Bruce Paddock and the Las Vegas shooting.
While Stephen Paddock had no prior criminal record, Bruce Paddock did.
He has convictions for making threats, vandalism, and criminal contempt of court, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Several other charges against him dating back to 1989 were dropped.
