CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : MODESTO : Stockton Killer’s Half-Brother Held

The half-brother of the man who committed the Stockton schoolyard massacre has been ordered to stand trial in Modesto on a charge of recklessly and maliciously possessing an explosive device. Albert Gulart Jr., 20, was bound over after a Stanislaus County Municipal Court preliminary hearing. Police said they raided Gulart’s home in Modesto last March and seized an Ingram Mac-10 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, an M-1 carbine, ammunition for both weapons, 2 1/2-inch artillery shells, blasting caps and shotgun shells. Gulart’s half-brother, Patrick Purdy, shot five children to death and wounded 30 other people at Cleveland School in Stockton on Jan. 17 with a semiautomatic rifle. He then killed himself with a handgun. That carnage prompted the state Legislature to ban semiautomatic assault rifles.