COLTON HARRIS-MOORE'S FEDERAL PLEA DEAL

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Colton appeared in Seattle federal court yesterday for a change of plea hearing that laid out the agreement reached for the Federal charges and all other charges against him outside of Washington State.

After the reports of a prison-volleyball injury (amazing what makes the news), Colt walked into the courtroom without a limp. He looked fine, though paler than when I last saw him in the Bahamas, which is to be expected after nearly a year in Seatac Federal Detention Center. Instead of the t-shirt and shorts he wore in the Bahamas courtroom, Colt had on a green button-down shirt over khaki pants. He smiled as he greeted his attorney, John Henry Browne, but spent the rest of the hour-long proceedings looking down at his printed plea or directly at Judge Richard Jones.

At the prosecution table were Assistant US Attorneys Darwin Roberts and Michael Dion along with Special Agent Linwood Smith who headed the FBI investigation.

The judge addressed Colton as “sir” throughout, and questioned him thoroughly about whether he understood what was going on, the rights he was giving up, and the charges for which he was prepared to change his plea from not guilty to guilty. Colt answered everything with either “yes sir” or “no sir” in a clear voice. Darwin Roberts spoke for the US and read the 7 federal charges along with a “Statement of Fact” in which Colt was admitting responsibility for more than 25 additional crimes in Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Those crimes were primarily the car thefts and hangar break-ins during his cross-country run and included the plane theft that took him from Indiana to the Bahamas.

Colt’s punishment for the crimes will include prison time, presumably some probation, restitution and forfeiture of any and all proceeds from ever telling or trading on his story.

The prison sentence recommendation for these crimes is 63 to 78 months. The final number will be decided by the judge at the end of October. The agreement states that whatever the final sentence, it will be served in Washington State prisons.

Colt admits that that the losses attributable to these crimes add up to $1,409,438.

The forfeiture section of the agreement states that, so far, Colt owes $959,438 in restitution. There will be another amount somewhere north of $250,000 added for Washington State crime victims.

Colt can start to pay that off with proceeds from his story. Out of the 28 page plea agreement, seven pages dealt with Colt’s ability to tell or sell his story or otherwise trade on the publicity garnered during his run as the Barefoot Bandit. Jenny Durkin, the US Attorney for the Western District, says that the agreement ensures that Colt will never personally make a dime off his crimes. Those seven pages spell out that any money from movies, books, video games, Happy Meal toys, or anything else you can possibly think of that would go to Colt based on any of these events will instead go to pay restitution. If it ever got to the point where he paid back all the victims, then money earned beyond that will go, I presume, to help reduce the federal deficit.

Colt has consistently said that he does not want himself or his family to profit off the crimes and, as the plea agreement mentions, is currently negotiating to sell his limited life rights to a movie studio in order to start paying restitution to victims.

Next up for Colton Harris-Moore is an appearance in a Washington State courtroom where he’ll plead guilty to crimes in Island, San Juan, Snohomish and Skagit counties. From current and expected filings, that agreement will include 32 charges. The most serious state charge is a burglary during which he took a pistol. Sentencing guidelines for that crime alone max at 116 months.

The combined pleas will run concurrent, but the net result of the state sentence will most likely mean that Colt will get prison time in excess of the 78-month federal sentence. With the current Washington State laws carrying mandatory minimums for crimes involving firearms, Colt could wind up serving 100 months.

As for Colton’s long-term plans: He wants to study aeronautical engineering.     

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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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BOOK NEWS

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Dear Patient Readers,

First, thanks to all who responded to my questions about your interest in Colton’s story. I received emails from people of all ages from places around the world. As I suspected, you all had very thoughtful and interesting takes. 

Second, it’s nice to see by the comments that your interest in Colton continues to translate into care about other young people in difficult circumstances. As I’ve said before, that’s been my biggest takeaway from all this.

Okay, book news: I’ve completed the manuscript. Right now it’s a shelf-bender at 600 pages. I’ll try to whittle that down some by the time it gets to the printer. At the same time, though, I’ll be adding pages to it because… The really big news is that my publisher has agreed to push back the pub date of the book until after Colt makes his way through the courts. To me, this is great news and something I’ve been lobbying very hard for. I appreciate Hyperion taking this step for a number of reasons.

Most basically, the book will now have an ending. Colt’s plea deals will, of course, make news, but then quickly disappear. I feel a book on this subject should have a long shelf life, and so it has to tell what happens to him in the justice system. One option was to do the hardcover now then update for the paperback, but I didn't feel that would be fair to the folks who bought the hardcover.

Most worrisome for me, though, was the idea that the book could come out while all the legal wrangling was still going on. Colt hasn’t been convicted of anything since the charges that sent him to Greenhill in 2007. It’s relatively certain that he illegally absconded from the group home in 2008, but who knows… his attorney may try the “alien abduction” defense.

Seriously… Colt has a talented lawyer defending him. The Federal and local prosecutors have the law and all the evidence gathered by numerous county, state, Federal and even international law enforcement on their side. I hope that the negotiations result in fair sentences (at this point it sounds like Colt will face both Federal and Washington State sentencing). There is, of course, still a chance this could end up in a trial or two. I would not want any information in my book to become involved in any Sixth Amendment (impartial jury) issues. It’s been sensibly argued by both sides in previous court proceedings that pre-trial publicity can be prejudicial to both the defendant’s and the People’s cases. Yes, I’ve already written about Colt and some of these events during the last few years, but not in anything like the depth this book goes into.

So, I apologize that the book will be delayed. But at least from my point of view, it’s a good thing and a big relief. It will probably cost some sales, but there are much larger issues at play here.

Colt will be sentenced this spring or summer. I’ll cover that, add it to the manuscript and then Hyperion will release it. The uncertainty of the legal timing means we can’t give a pub date right now. Whenever that is, though, you’ll get the most complete, factually correct book I can give you, one that’s fair to everyone involved in this complex and compelling story.

Thanks,

Bob

YOUR TURN

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Thanks for all your patience while I’ve disappeared to work on this book. I’ll be back with regular updates on the Colton Harris-Moore story as soon as possible. 

I’m now working on a chapter that includes worldwide reaction to Colt. As I know many of you have been following this story very closely, I’d like to give you the opportunity to contribute.

Let me know how you first heard about Colton Harris-Moore, what interested you in the story and what interested you about Colt. Tell me how you feel about him (the good and the bad) and how you feel about the events that have happened along the way. Explain why you feel that way. Beyond your own reaction, how did you feel about other people's reaction to the story? What you think his punishment should be… etc. Write anything you want about your interest in the story and what it says to you about Colt, about society, about our times...  

A lot of you have said these things in the blog comments, but these answers will have to come via email. I don’t necessarily have to use your real name, but I do have to know that you’re a real person in order to use any quotes in the book. Don't feel you have to write an entire essay -- this is not a school assignment, and I will only be able to use short excerpts anyway.  

Depending on the volume, I may not be able to answer all emails right away, but I will read everything that comes in. Please send your emails to: Outlawblog@gmail.com

Thanks, and I hope everyone is having a good winter -- whether or not you're under six feet of snow. 

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UPDATES AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS

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I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Merry Christmas.

I know many people are concerned about Colton’s Christmas. The latest information I have is that he’s holding up well, still in solitary by his preference, occupying himself by drawing and reading. I know many people have sent him cards and letters.

On a related note: I hope that those who are in a position to help during this season will consider donating to child and youth programs in their local communities.   

There’s been some discussion in the comments about Colt’s education and whether what he has to say will be of any interest. Regardless of Colt’s level of formal education (which teachers and his fellow students tell me basically ended at the fourth grade)  I am interested to find out what he has to say. I think many other people will be curious as well, including crime victims, psychologists and Colt’s supporters.

At this point, my book will tell you everything we know about his childhood, how people treated him, how he treated other people, what his school experience was like, what were some defining moments in his life, how he made friends and enemies, how he began to get into trouble, how that escalated, and on through the wild chases, captures and escapes of the last four years. (The book also focuses on the effect he had on communities here – the wtf-effect – but we’re just talking Colt now).

His actions and the words we hear him say to those around him already speak volumes about the person he was/is, where he’s come from and what he has experienced. If Colt breaks his silence before the manuscript is finalized, then I think we’ll also have a glimpse of his future potential, good or bad. In that case, formal education level is moot; it’s more about self-awareness.

As for an actual book update: The release is set for Spring 2011. I’ll let you know the exact date it will arrive at bookstores as soon as we hear. Hyperion, concerned that folks wouldn’t find the book easily enough, have titled it: The Barefoot Bandit: The True Story of Colton Harris-Moore, New American Outlaw. (Remember to look for my name as author as there will be other Barefoot Bandit books out there). As a sign of the times, it’s already available for pre-order on your favorite book websites (they don’t charge you until it actually ships). Your local brick-and-mortar bookstore will also be able to pre-order for you.

Happy holidays!      

OUTSIDE STORY ON COLTON CHOSEN A TOP TEN

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The story I wrote about Colton Harris-Moore in Outside Magazine (the first major magazine story published on Colt) was just selected as one of the"Top Ten Most Ridiculously Entertaining Reads of 2010."

Longform.org is a group that combs the web for stories that are larger than the little bits and blurbs that most people have the patience to peruse online. They then highlight the ones that they feel are worthy of a real read.

Longform has chosen some amazing stories for their editor's picks and top tens, so it's great to make their list. If anyone hasn't read the piece, the link above will take you to the list and then to the story on Outside's website.
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