COLTON HARRIS-MOORE: 14 MORE CHARGES, INCLUDING THEFT OF A COP'S ASSAULT RIFLE

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Island County, Washington – Colton’s home county – filed amended court documents charging him with 14 felonies. Many of the charges stem from evidence found when Colt jumped out of a moving Mercedes and fled on foot, leaving behind a backpack filled with credit card scanners and other materials tied to burglaries on Camano Island.

This is the first time Island County has charged him with breaking into a sheriff deputy’s patrol car, though they’ve long believed Colton was responsible. The AR-15 assault rifle has never been found, but a camera and other items taken from the patrol car were found at a campsite tied to Colton by forensic evidence. Another new charge stems from the burglary of a county government building on Camano where a safe was stolen and then thrown into a pond.

Island County prosecutor Greg Banks said he’s filing these charges now because some of the earlier 2008 crimes are nearing their statute of limitations. As part of the plea-deal poker game, he also held out the possibility of adding more if the case goes to trial. For now, he’s cherry picking only the strongest cases. 

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COLTON HARRIS-MOORE: “YOU CAN’T CATCH ME” PLUS 16 NEW CHARGES

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San Juan County today filed an additional 16 charges against Colton Harris-Moore, including two plane and three boat thefts. The other felony charges include residential and commercial burglaries such as the Homegrown Market break-in -- where the famous chalk footprints and “C-Ya” were left scrawled on the floor -- and Vern’s Bayside, where the how-to-fly DVDs were ordered and the safe cracked.

The filing also spells out the words a San Juan County deputy says that the Barefoot Bandit used to taunt him after he’d chased Colton on foot through the town of Eastsound: “You can’t catch me.”

There are a lot of other incredible details behind all these chases and charges that stretched from the islands of the Northwest to the Bahamas. They’re not in the court filings, but they will be included in my upcoming book, The Barefoot Bandit, to be published by Hyperion.  

The new charges bring the San Juan County tally up to 17 felonies, each with a maximum penalty of up to ten years in prison. Island County is also expected to file a new batch of felony charges against Colton in the near future. Attorneys involved in the case expect all of the Federal and Washington State charges will be handled in a plea deal within the next month. For now, Colton Harris-Moore remains inside the Seatac Federal Detention Center, where he's been held since his capture last July in the Bahamas. 

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