James Wesley Howell, 20, of Indiana, appears in Superior Court in Los Angeles Tuesday, June 14, 2016. Howell faces felony weapons charges after authorities say they found assault rifles and explosive... (Associated Press) 
 
 James Wesley Howell, 20, of Indiana, appears in Superior Court in Los Angeles Tuesday, June 14, 2016. Howell faces felony weapons charges after authorities say they found assault rifles and explosive chemicals in his car in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 12, before a major Los Angeles gay pride parade.... (Associated Press) 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana man facing weapons and ammunitions charges in California after telling officers he was headed to a gay pride event was charged Wednesday in Indiana with child molestation — allegations that apparently spurred his cross-country journey to Los Angeles, a prosecutor said. 
 
 James Wesley Howell, 20, faces one count of child molesting in southern Indiana's Clark County. If convicted, the Jeffersonville, Indiana, man could face up to 16 years in prison. 
 
 Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull told The Associated Press that Howell took a 12-year-old girl to a state forestry property May 31 and had sex with her. Mull said Howell met the girl through an adult friend. 
 
 The girl's mother reported the allegations to police June 2 after learning about them. 
 
 A message seeking comment was left Wednesday for Howell family lawyer Bobby Boyd of Louisville, Kentucky. Telephone calls to Pamela Jones, Howell's public defender in the California weapons case, rang unanswered. 
 
 Mull said Howell was interviewed on June 7 by a police detective in the molestation case and apparently left Indiana at some point after speaking to the officer. 
 
 He said it's a "logical conclusion to draw" that Howell traveled to California to flee the child molestation investigation. But he said he doesn't know what Howell's intentions were in California. 
 
 "He did flee and go to California, where he was apprehended on June 12. So there was a very short window of time between the time he became aware he was under investigation here and when he ended up in California," Mull said. 
 
 He said he intends to have Howell extradited to Indiana to face the molestation charge. 
 
 California authorities charged Howell on Tuesday with three felony weapons and ammunition charges after he was found in Santa Monica with a loaded assault rifle with magazines rigged to allow 60 shots to be fired in quick succession, plus 15 pounds of chemicals mixed and ready to explode. 
 
 Howell has pleaded not guilty to those charges. A Los Angeles County judge set Howell's bail at $2 million. 
 
 He was arrested in Santa Monica early Sunday, hours after an attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida left 49 people dead. 
 
 Howell told police he was headed to a gay pride event in West Hollywood that attracts hundreds of thousands of people. It's unclear whether he intended any violence at the LA Pride event, but his arrest put police and event organizers on heightened alert. 
 
 Friends in Indiana described Howell as a gun enthusiast with a short temper. In October, he twice was accused of pulling a gun and making threats, once against a boyfriend and once against a neighbor. 
 
 Howell was convicted in April of misdemeanor intimidation for the incident with his neighbor. Under the terms of his probation, he was not allowed to have weapons or leave Indiana. 
 
 Court documents in the Indiana molestation case state that the 12-year-old girl had "developed a crush on (Howell) and wanted to go to a car event with him." Howell, the girl's brother and the brother's girlfriend were all members of the same "car club" and periodically attended meetings where people show off their cars, documents say. 
 
 The girl's mother gave Howell permission to attend the car event and afterward, Howell offered to take the girl to the home of a family friend she considered her grandmother, court documents say. 
 
 According to the affidavit, he first took the girl to the state forestry property before taking her to the family friend's house. 
 
 Federal agents searched Howell's Jeffersonville home on Monday but declined to release any details. ||||| Los Angeles County Sheriff's department motorcycle deputies ride along a street in West Hollywood, Calif., during the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 12, 2016. A heavily armed man arrested in Southern... (Associated Press) 
 
 Los Angeles County Sheriff's department motorcycle deputies ride along a street in West Hollywood, Calif., during the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 12, 2016. A heavily armed man arrested in Southern California told police he was in the area for West Hollywood's gay pride parade. (AP Photo/Richard... (Associated Press) 
 
 SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Police and FBI agents were working to figure out why a man from Indiana had three assault rifles and chemicals used in making explosives in his car some 2,000 miles from home in Southern California, where he told the officers arresting him that he was headed to a gay pride parade. 
 
 Santa Monica police and the FBI, which was leading the investigation, were examining the intentions of James Wesley Howell, 20, who told police he was going to LA Pride in West Hollywood, an event that annually draws hundreds of thousands of people. His arrest came just a few hours after at least 50 people were shot and killed in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, though police said they had found no evidence of a connection between the events. 
 
 Howell, of Jeffersonville, was arrested around 5 a.m. after residents called police to report suspicious behavior by a man who parked his white Acura sedan facing the wrong way. When officers arrived they saw an assault rifle sitting in Howell's passenger seat, Santa Monica police Lt. Saul Rodriguez said. 
 
 That prompted them to search the whole car. They found two more assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and ammunition and a five-gallon bucket with chemicals that could be used to make an explosive device, police said. 
 
 Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks initially tweeted that Howell told officers he wanted to "harm" the gay pride event, but she later corrected her statement to say only that Howell said he was going to the parade. 
 
 A Facebook page that apparently is Howell's includes photos of the white Acura he was driving in Santa Monica. The postings are unremarkable. There's no enmity toward gays or notable political activism. One post says he's signing a petition to legalize marijuana. 
 
 The page's most recent public post, from June 3, shows a photo comparing an Adolf Hitler quote to one from Hillary Clinton. An anti-Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders photo was posted in February. 
 
 The site said Howell worked as an auditor for a company that makes air filters. 
 
 Howell was charged in October in Clark County, Indiana, with pointing a firearm at someone, and with intimidation. He made a deal with prosecutors in April to plead guilty only to the misdemeanor intimidation charge. He was given one-year prison sentence that the judge suspended in favor of strict probation that prohibited him from having weapons. 
 
 A friend of Howell's, 18-year-old Joseph Greeson, said Howell's parents in Jeffersonville hadn't seen him for days and that they called Greeson's parents looking for him. Greeson told the Los Angeles Times that he and Howell are in a car club together and that Howell had a gun collection. 
 
 Greeson also said Howell harbored no ill will for gays or lesbians. 
 
 The event continued as usual, albeit with increased security. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the arrest at the start of the parade and struck a defiant tone. 
 
 "We are here as Angelenos, as the LGBT community and allies," he said. "And we will not shrink away, we will not be stuck in our homes, we will not go back into our closets. We're here to march, to celebrate and to mourn." 
 
 Carl Oliver of Los Angeles attends the parade every year. He said he cried after hearing about Orlando, but he never considered not coming. 
 
 "This is about love," he said. "We have to show our love and unity." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
– It still isn't clear what James Howell was doing en route to an LA Pride event with weapons and explosives in his car—police say he had no connection to the Orlando shooting—but we now know more about him: The 20-year-old Indiana man was charged with child molestation Wednesday after allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl on May 31. A Clark County prosecutor—who plans to have Howell extradited back to Indiana—tells the AP that Howell and the girl's brother are members of the same car club and that the girl attended a car event with Howell. Afterward, Howell offered to drive the girl to the home of a family friend but first stopped at a forested area, where Howell molested her, the prosecutor says. The girl's mom went to police two days later and Howell was interviewed on June 7. Police say he admitted to fleeing Indiana "due to his concerns over existing or pending criminal charges" after he was found early Sunday with a loaded assault rifle, Taser, hood, magazines, handcuffs, and 15 pounds of explosive chemicals that "posed a grave danger to both persons and property," per the Los Angeles Times. He faces up to 16 years if convicted of child molestation, and more than nine years if convicted of felony weapons charges, including possession of explosives on a highway, possession of an assault weapon, and possession of high-capacity magazines. Howell—who friends describe as a gun enthusiast—was convicted of misdemeanor intimidation in April after allegedly pulling a gun on a neighbor and wasn't allowed to have weapons or leave Indiana. His bail is set at $2 million.