(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Topsfield, Mass.) - Police are investigating a possible link between a Massachusetts man and the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
Daniel Morley of Topsfield was arrested last month after a four-hour standoff. He's accused of threatening to blow up an airplane.
Robert LeBlanc stood outside the criminal clerks office at Newburyport District Church Court, acknowledging things don't look good.
"Things look horrible," he said. "This case looks absolutely horrible and the police were completely justified in what they did."
LeBlanc says one thing is clear: 27-year-old Morley is a troubled young man, but did he have anything to do with the Boston Marathon bombings?
"Never, never," LeBlanc insisted. "I never got the sense of any specific intent to do anyone harm."
Morley, who is now being investigated by the FBI, came on police radar June 9 when his mother had called 911 just before 3 a.m. saying her son had attacked her and her boyfriend as they slept in her Topsfield, Mass. home. She said he had a knife and threatened to burn the house down.
"He was not taking his medications and was in a confused state," LeBlanc said.
Local
Topsfield police arrested Morley and when they searched the house, they found among other things, a large pressure cooker, a black gym bag, ball bearings, fertilizer, dismantled cell phones, a high-powered rifle -- even a decapitated bird.
"It all looks horrible, quite frankly," he said. "The mother gave me an explanation of the pressure cooker, saying it was purchased long before the Marathon bombings by her."
When police found the pressure cooker, Morley told them there was an active bomb inside. It turned out to be a lie, but according to the search warrant, Morley told his mother his friend was trying to get him to do something really bad. And he later told his mother, "I'm sorry for what I've done ... and I will have to answer only to God."
She told police he would not elaborate, but her boyfriend says Morley told him this friend boxed with or against accused Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
LeBlanc said, "I asked him whether or not he knew them, had ever met anyone, And he said no."
Morley -- who's shown in photos being arrested during Occupy Wall Street in New York -- also allegedly had recipes to make explosives and a painting of a man with a gun and what could be the Boston skyline behind him. There is also an image of an airplane seemingly ready to crash. He's been arraigned on charges of two counts of domestic assault and battery, making threats and convening a bomb threat.
Neighbor Sue Bergmann does not think Morley had anything to do with the Marathon bombings, but still, all the police activity made her nervous.
"Something's wrong with him," Bergmann said. "And I just hope they don't let him come back."
Morley is in state custody, being evaluated at Bridgewater State Hospital, and is due back in court on Thursday. As for his friend, who allegedly knew the Tsarnaev brothers, he has not been charged with anything.
