"Barefoot Bandit" gets 7 years for crime spree
Colton Harris-Moore, also known as the "Barefoot Bandit," glances at the courtroom gallery as he walks to the defense table in Island County Superior Court Dec. 16, 2011, in Coupeville, Wash. / AP Photo
Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET
COUPEVILLE, Wash. - Colton Harris-Moore, the "Barefoot Bandit," was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to dozens of state charges.
The 20-year-old man gained international notoriety while evading police across the country in stolen planes, boats and cars during a two-year crime spree.
He looked down and showed no reaction as the sentence was delivered.
Judge Vickie Churchill said, "This case is a tragedy in many ways, but it's a triumph of the human spirit in other ways." She described Harris-Moore's upbringing as a "mind numbing absence of hope," and believed he was genuinely remorseful and contrite.
Barefoot Bandit" pleads guilty
Read a letter Colton Harris-Moore wrote to the judge (PDF)
Friday's proceedings 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.
Wearing handcuffs and an orange jail uniform, Colton Harris-Moore spoke softly in court while entering his pleas and sat next to his attorneys with his eyes downcast, looking even younger than his 20 years.
In a statement provided to Judge Vickie Churchill, he said his childhood was one he wouldn't wish on his "darkest enemies."
Still, he said he takes responsibility for the crime spree that brought him international notoriety.
Harris-Moore said he studied manuals and online videos to teach himself to be a pilot, and the thrills he experienced while flying stolen planes renewed his passion for life and will help him rehabilitate while in prison.
"The euphoria of the countdown to takeoff and the realization of a dream was nearly blinding," he said of his first illicit flight on Nov. 11, 2008. "My first thought after takeoff was `Oh my God, I'm flying.' I had waited my entire life for that moment."
He said he'll use his prison time to study and get ready to apply to college, with the hope of earning an aeronautical engineering degree.
Several victims and a few curious citizens watched Harris-Moore enter his pleas in Island County Superior Court, along with Harris-Moore's aunt.
"He was a menace," Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks told the court. "His burglaries threatened and distressed people. People were afraid to leave their houses."
Harris-Moore 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.
Harris-Moore's daring run from the law earned him international fame and 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.
State prosecutors asked for a nine-and-a-half year sentence. His attorneys John Henry Browne and Emma Scanlan sought a low-end, six-year term, citing Harris-Moore's 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.
Browne also said the young man's time on the run was horrific and included spending nights in culverts and portable toilets.
Harris-Moore's first conviction came at age 12, in 2004, for possession of stolen property, and according to the reports, 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.
Waves of burglaries broke out on Orcas Island, where Kyle Ater runs his Homegrown Market and Deli, in late 2009 and in early 2010, after stolen planes were found at the airport there. The second time, Harris-Moore left Ater's new security system in a utility sink, under a running faucet. He took cash and a tray of croissants, and Ater's insurance company jacked up his rates.
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Colton is indeed a repeat offender since the the age of 12. His mother spent all of her income on cigarettes and alcohol and ignored him. He had no father figure. He stole FOOD. When grown he continued the only life he knew for survival. He broke into places and again stole FOOD. Yes his crime spree escalated into stealing cars and planes but after a life on the lam he did what he could to survive. His victims will be re compensated from the sale of the rights to his story.
What of the those in the banking industry who caused the recession? They ran their companies into the ground. Do they get fired? No.
Meanwhile they collect multi million dollar bonuses at the expense of the tax payers who bailed them out.Yes we are paying THEM. Colton does far less damage and he goes to jail. Thank republicans who seem to think this is all ok.
This kid's crimes (and punishment) shouldn't be mitigated by the fact compensation may be availble to the victims by virtue of a book about this punk's exploits.
Was he taken from his mother, as a protection order by the state because of alleged child abuse/neglect noted by this criminal?
American kids feel they are entitled.. "boo-hoo I didn't have a good childhood"..AND? IMPO I suggest american kids go to other parts of the world and see how children are living on the streets naked and sold into the sex slave trade since birth for western nation males. These kids from other nations have no security/protection or secure neccessities american kids have.. like a home..or a parent(s) or relatives who are there.. I've travelled this globe..and amazed of the poor welfare of children of varies nations-mainly in South Asia, Africa and Northern Europe..and trust me, a large percentage of America kids are spoiled ROTTEN, ungrateful and feel entitled...and commit crimes as result..
So according to you.. every kid who had alleged experiences of child abuse..and as an adult will continue the life known for survival? That's CRAP.. and doesn't speak to kids of similar experience, who made a BETTER choice as an example of what NOT to do..as opposed to taking the LOW road as a thief- leading a life of career criminal activity by CHOICE!
GET A JOB is the BEST way to feed yourshelf.
Yeah, say that is sociopath speaking, but more and more adults and teenagers are realizing that is the truth of life today.
There's been children with worse childhood and made the choice to be a productive human in society..so this sympathic poor childhood stuff is crap...
He committed his crime spree in another country mostly..so he's not under.. let say american privledge of a certain hue..and this is not going to be another Amanda Knox or OJ situation where both got away with murder because of inept police tampering..
It's an appropriate sentence..I would have given him more years.
We need to send the lesson LOUD and clear.. if you'r a liar, you will steal, and if you steal.. you will eventually kill.
There's nothing out of the ordinary about the mental ability of this criminal, in fact, he's intellect speak volumes.. he thought this out and the cat and mouse chase was a game for him.. catch me if you can.. a deliberate attempt by this criminal to foil the search efforts and capture by authorities.
He's a non masculine looking BOY.. the inmates are waiting for him.
Send him to Afghanistan for 3 years and see how cocky he is when he gets back from that.