SEATTLE – Despite pleading not-guilty to six federal charges Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Colton Harris-Moore is expected to enter into a plea agreement within days, avoiding trial.
The agreement between federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for the Barefoot Bandit is imminent.
“It’s on the table,” said John Henry Browne, Harris-Moore’s lawyer.
The federal plea would settle all criminal matters against the notorious Camano Island man, 20, with the exception of 30 felonies he’s accused of in Washington, Browne said.
State charges are likely to be consolidated and settled in a separate agreement, Browne said. Island County Superior Court in Coupeville is the anticipated venue for the state pleas.
Harris-Moore is charged federally with stealing planes and a boat, a bank burglary and weapons violations in connection with a two-year crime spree.
Already a well-known serial burglar as a teen, Harris-Moore escaped a halfway house in Renton in 2008 and fled until his July 11 arrest in the Bahamas.
He’s suspected of nearly 100 crimes in nine states and three countries.
The most recent federal charge, a Sept. 5, 2009, bank burglary in Eastsound on Orcas Island, carries a potential penalty of 20 years behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darwin Roberts said in court Thursday.
That charge was included in a superseding indictment filed May 25.
Harris-Moore is expected to serve about a dozen years, his attorney has said.
His time locked up will begin in Washington prisons, Browne said. That’s because the federal government gives credit to time served in state prisons, but the converse is not true.
Still, there are details of the plea agreement that need to be worked out, Browne told reporters Thursday.
The question of whether Harris-Moore can sell his story to help pay restitution, now calculated at about $1.4 million, is unresolved, Browne said.
Harris-Moore walked into court Thursday and greeted Browne with a smile. There was no apparent sign of a limp.
Last week, Harris-Moore reportedly sprained his ankle during a jail volleyball game.
He’s been returned to a segregated section of the Federal Detention Center in Seatac out of concern for his safety, Browne said.
However, there was no indication of an assault, the lawyer said.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3447; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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