Mystery of helicopter crash at Sacramento Executive Airport: FBI search warrants offer clues

The bizarre tale of someone trying to fly away in a helicopter from Sacramento’s Executive Airport in March has gotten even stranger, with the FBI saying an EBT card was found inside a chopper and identifying a potential suspect from whom they later obtained a DNA sample.

No charges have been filed in connection with the incident, but newly unsealed search warrant documents in federal court say the FBI zeroed in on a 20-year-old man named Jaden Julius Edwards after an EBT card in his name was found in a helicopter at the airport on March 15.

FBI Special Agent Sean Lister successfully sought court orders allowing for records of Edwards’ cellphone to be accessed through his provider and for authorities to obtain a DNA sample for Edwards while he was being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail.

Court records do not disclose whether Edwards’ DNA matched that of DNA found in aircraft at the airport.

But court files say authorities found video evidence from an AM-PM market across the street from Executive Airport that showed an individual resembling Edwards making a purchase there at 1:02 a.m. on March 15, less than two hours before someone began tampering with helicopters at the field.

Court files also say that two days after the incident at Executive Airport, Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies found Edwards inside a plane at Mather Airport.

“Without authorization, Edwards was found in a small (Cessna) airplane,” a search warrant affidavit from Lister says. “Edwards told the responding officers he was trying to start the airplane, but it was out of fuel.”

No charges against Edwards related to the incidents are filed in Sacramento Superior Court or U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

Edwards is currently being held in the Clark County, Nevada, jail on an attempted grand larceny case from Nevada and as a fugitive from another state, online jail records said Thursday.

Federal court records in Sacramento say that because Edwards is in custody “there is no need for the search warrant or search warrant affidavit to remain under seal.”

The helicopter case began on March 15 — Edwards’ 20th birthday — at 2:39 a.m. when “an unknown individual began tampering with equipment within multiple helicopters located at the airport,” a search warrant affidavit says.

“The unknown individual was able to start Helicopter #1 but, in the process, damaged or destroyed one of its engines,” the affidavit says. “The unknown subject went to Helicopter #2 and could not start it.

“The unknown subject went to Helicopter #3 and was able to start the engine, but the helicopter did not stay on due to having a low battery. Finally, the subject went to Helicopter #4 and was able to start it.”

The fourth helicopter did not stay aloft long, however, according to video security footage the FBI obtained from Capitol Helicopters, a charter firm at the airport.

“The recording depicted the turbine blade of Helicopter #4 beginning to turn at approximately 4:50 AM,” the affidavit says. “The video further depicted Helicopter #4 rocking up and down, turning slightly, then, after a moment, quickly flying upwards off the ground a little and then flipping violently over onto its side where it came to a rest.”

A projectile from the crash damaged another aircraft at the site, court records say, and investigators descended on the scene and discovered the EBT card in Edwards’ name in the cockpit of the helicopter that crashed, court records say.

“A representative of Capitol Helicopters confirmed that no one named Jaden Edwards had been given access to their helicopters or was authorized to operate them,” the affidavit says.

Edwards had listed his address as general delivery in Sacramento for the EBT card, court records say. He also listed his cellphone number for that card, and agents eventually obtained a search warrant for records seeking the location of the phone at various times.

The search for Edwards apparently did not last long.

Deputies found him inside the Cessna at Mather Airport on March 17, and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office filed a felony complaint against him on March 21 charging him with being a fugitive from Nevada on a grand larceny case involving an automobile.

Court files say he failed to appear for a June 29, 2022, court hearing in Nevada.

The Sacramento charge was dismissed the same day it was filed, online court records show. D.A. spokeswoman Shelly Orio said the charge was dropped because Edwards waived extradition and agreed to be returned to Nevada to face charges there.

That same day, the FBI received approval from a federal magistrate judge to obtain Edwards’ DNA through an oral swab at the Main Jail, where he was then being held. The sample was collected March 22, court records say.

Court records say investigators collected DNA samples from each of the four helicopters at Executive Airport, and Lister said in an affidavit seeking Edwards’ DNA that he was investigating Edwards “in relation to damaging, wrecking, and destroying aircraft at the Sacramento Executive Airport in Sacramento.”

At the same time federal agents were focusing on Edwards, he was the target of another charge in Sacramento, this one a misdemeanor complaint charging him with trespassing for allegedly occupying a structure in an alley near 15th and H streets in Sacramento in February.

He failed to appear for a May 11 arraignment on that case, online court records say. That failure to appear apparently stemmed from the fact that by then he was in custody in Nevada, Clark County jail records say.

The Nevada case stemmed from an auto grand larceny case in which Edwards pleaded guilty in a deal that called for him to serve between 12 to 30 months, online Clark County Superior Court records say.

He was scheduled to face sentencing last June, but failed to appear, court records say.