MIAMI — Colton Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to a minor immigration violation in the Bahamas on Tuesday and immediately was ordered deported to the U.S.
“Colton wants to go home,” said his Bahamian lawyer, Monique Gomez.
The 19-year-old Camano Island fugitive was fined $300 for illegally entering the country.
Gomez said the U.S. Embassy would pay the fine.
Harris-Moore was turned over to the FBI and within hours was flown to Miami, where he is expected to appear as early as today before a federal judge.
“He will be coming back,” Harris-Moore’s mother, Pam Kohler, confirmed to The Herald on Tuesday before hanging up on a reporter.
It could take up to three or four weeks for him to be moved from Florida back to the Pacific Northwest, said David Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Seattle.
The Justice Prisoner &Alien Transportation System operates a fleet of secure aircraft, including jets, to safely and efficiently move prisoners around the county, Miller said.
“He’ll be handled and transported like any other federal prisoner,” he said.
Harris-Moore was wearing unlaced, white tennis shoes with no socks Tuesday as heavily armed police brought him into court in the Bahamas. Over the years, he earned the nickname the “Barefoot Bandit” for reportedly running from crimes without shoes. He was barefoot at the time of his arrest Sunday.
Miller said Harris-Moore likely will not be asked to remove shoes for inspection prior to his prison flight.
“He’ll probably be thoroughly screened at that point,” Miller said.
Harris-Moore faces federal charges in U.S. District Court in Seattle in connection with a stolen plane that crashed near Granite Falls last fall. Once he’s returned to Washington, he’s expected to be held at a federal detention center in Sea-Tac, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Harris-Moore allegedly landed a stolen plane in the Bahamas on July 4. He’d been on a two-year crime spree which began in Washington when he escaped a halfway house.
He told police in the Bahamas that he came to the country because it has so many islands, airports and docks, according to an officer who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The fugitive claimed that he told islanders he was trying to get to Cuba, so he could throw police off his trail. Instead, he reportedly intended to make his way to the Turks and Caicos Islands southeast of the Bahamas, the officer said.
The suspect learned from the Internet that the British territory has a small police force and no marine defense force, according to the officer.
Court papers filed in Nebraska show that the teen has a history of scouting his targets on the Web. After allegedly breaking into an airport in Spearfish, S.D., on June 15, he reportedly used a computer to research the airport in Yankton, the next South Dakota town where he was suspected of committing crimes.
The FBI on Tuesday wouldn’t comment if detectives had reason to suspect the fugitive’s plans prior to the July 4 crash of a Cessna 400 in shallow waters off the Bahamas.
Gomez, the lawyer who represented Harris-Moore in court Tuesday, said she was contacted by an anonymous source who asked her to look in on the 6-foot, 5-inch prisoner. She said she expected to be paid by some of the dozens of people who called her Tuesday offering support.
She described her client as a “brilliant young man, highly intelligent, very nice, very personable.”
He was in good spirits Tuesday and had talked to his aunt, Sandra E. Puttmann, of Arlington, but had not talked to his mother.
Island County court records describe Puttmann as a rare positive influence for Harris-Moore. His contact with the aunt was limited by his mother, interference he complained about to court officials.
Gomez said her client hadn’t been to the notorious Fox Hill prison, but instead was being held in a cell at a local police station. She said she had a long discussion with him, but couldn’t share the details.
The attorney said she was flooded with calls from reporters around the world Tuesday and she barely had time to eat.
“I wish him the best and trust that all goes well for him,” Gomez said.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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