Resident guilty of threats, stalking

A Costa Mesa man who was armed to the teeth when he was arrested last year faces more than 15 years in prison after his conviction Tuesday for stalking his estranged wife and threatening police and an Orange County judge.

Ronald Gary Turner, 45, was convicted Tuesday of numerous felonies, including stalking, possessing destructive devices, having a homemade deadly weapon and possessing a loaded firearm in public.

In April 2008, Turner was put on probation after pleading guilty to domestic violence and ordered to keep away from his estranged wife. He didn’t attend the court-ordered batterer’s treatment program in the following months, and authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. With an arrest warrant in hand and a tip that Turner had bombs and had been threatening Huntington Beach police, his wife and her attorney and the judge presiding over their case, police arrested him.

Police pulled over Turner during a traffic stop on the 22 Freeway and found handcuffs, pepper spray, throwing knives and a stolen handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets and the serial numbers scratched off in his car.

The Orange County bomb squad, with help from local police, searched Turner’s Costa Mesa home where they found three homemade bombs with timers, two homemade handguns, tactical and listening equipment and a bulletproof vest. Two children unrelated to Turner also lived in the home.

He faces up to 15 years and four months in prison at his Aug. 27 sentencing at Fullerton’s North Justice Center.