A Bismarck man on probation for his role in building a pipe bomb that blew off a friend's arm in 2004 has pleaded not guilty to possession of explosives.

Doug Feist, 30, entered the not-guilty plea to South Central District Judge Tom Schneider after a short preliminary hearing.

According to a Bismarck police news release, police responded to a report of a loud explosion or shotgun going off in the alley area behind 112 N. Fifth St. at 12:11 a.m. July 6.

Remnants of sparklers were located, and it was discovered someone had configured numerous sparklers in such a way as to cause an explosion. Witnesses told police that someone threw it out of an apartment window, and witnesses identified that person as Feist.

Police later arrested Feist at his Bismarck residence.

Schneider found probable cause for the case to proceed to trial following the preliminary hearing, in which Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Julie Lawyer called one witness.

Detective Dean Clarkson testified that two men said Feist had brought sparklers and tape to an apartment at 112 N. Fifth Street on July 6. One of the men, Everett Bartlett, admitted to lighting the sparkler bomb, Clarkson said.

Bartlett also has been charged with possession of explosives, according to court documents. Clarkson said Bartlett and the other man, who has not been charged, told conflicting stories about who constructed the sparkler bomb, but both said Feist was involved.

He said a search of Feist's home by probation officers yielded "recipes" for making fertilizer bombs and nitroglycerin.

In the 2004 incident, a friend of Feist's, Andrew Greff, lost an arm while detonating a pipe bomb at Kimball Bottoms, about 10 miles south of Bismarck. He drove himself to the emergency room on a motorcycle with his arm dangling and barely attached. The arm was later surgically removed.

Feist is on probation for bomb possession charges in that matter, which at one point ended up in the North Dakota Supreme Court.