COUPEVILLE, Wash.?? The young U.S. thief who gained an international following as the "Barefoot Bandit" for stealing planes, boats and cars and breaking into homes and businesses pleaded guilty Friday to several felonies in Washington state.
Wearing handcuffs and an orange jail uniform in Coupeville, Colton Harris-Moore, 20, softly answered affirmatively Friday when the judge asked if he understood his rights. He said guilty when the judge asked how he wanted to plead.
He pleaded guilty to a total of 16 counts from Island County, including identity theft, theft of firearm and residential burglary. Then the hearing continued with Harris-Moore pleading guilty to 17 counts from San Juan County.
Several victims and a few curious citizens watched inside the courtroom, along with Harris-Moore's aunt.
Afterward he sat next to his attorney, John Henry Browne, with his eyes downcast, looking younger than his 20 years.
"He was a menace," prosecutor Greg Banks said. "His burglaries threatened and distressed people ... They didn't know if they came back from vacation their houses would have been broken into."
Prosecutors planned ask for a sentence of just under 10 years, while his lawyers were seeking a six-year term.
Notorious run from law
Harris-Moore's daring run from the law earned him international notoriety, not to mention a movie deal to help repay his victims, after he flew a stolen plane from Indiana to the Bahamas in July 2010, crash-landed it near a mangrove swamp and was arrested by Bahamian authorities in a hail of bullets.
Friday's proceedings before Judge Vickie Churchill consolidated cases against Harris-Moore in three Washington counties. He has already pleaded guilty to federal charges in Seattle and will be sentenced for those crimes early next year. He will serve his state and federal sentences at the same time.
State prosecutors planned to ask for a nine-and-a-half year sentence Friday, while Harris-Moore's attorneys, John Henry Browne and Emma Scanlan, are seeking a six-year term, citing his bleak childhood in a Camano Island trailer with an alcoholic mother and a series of her convict boyfriends. They laid out the details of his upbringing in psychiatric and mitigation reports filed with the court.
"Colt blames no one but himself," wrote Pamela L. Rogers, a mitigation investigator who reviewed Harris-Moore's case. "He made bad choices and takes full responsibility and expects to be held accountable for those bad choices. ... He desperately hopes to one day have a career and a family and make contributions he can feel good about ? and he's willing to work hard for that."
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'A rakish teenager'
Harris-Moore's first conviction came at age 12, in 2004, for possession of stolen property, and according to the report, his first experience with burglary came when he broke into the homes of his classmates to steal food because his mother spent most of her Social Security income on beer and cigarettes ? something she has denied.
Over the next three years he was convicted of theft, burglary, malicious mischief and assault, among other crimes. At one point he was arrested when a detective posed as a pizza-delivery driver.
In 2007, the boy was sentenced to three years in a juvenile lockup after pleading guilty to three burglary counts in Island County. But he fled the minimum-security facility in April 2008 and was soon back to his old tricks, breaking into unoccupied vacation homes, stealing food and sometimes staying there.
As red-faced investigators repeatedly failed to catch him, his antics escalated: He began stealing planes from small, rural airports and crash-landing them ? at least five in all.
"What was characterized by the media as the swashbuckling adventures of a rakish teenager were in fact the actions of a depressed, possibly suicidal young man with waxing and waning post-traumatic stress disorder (following his first plane crash in November 2008)," wrote Dr. Richard S. Adler, a psychiatrist who evaluated him for the defense lawyers.
Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45696590/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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