EVERETT — Shackled for the first time in more than two years, Colton Harris-Moore placed his first jailhouse phone call Sunday from the Bahamas to his aunt here in Snohomish County.
Sandra E. Puttmann confirmed she got the call. She also said he was upset.
“Well, of course,” she said during a tense phone interview Monday. An angry Puttmann said she blames Stanwood School officials and the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
“Why didn’t they help him instead of arrest him for every little tiny thing? Why didn’t they let him in (the library) and read those books and teach him? Why didn’t they take him away from his mother?” Puttmann asked.
Harris-Moore, 19, was arrested before dawn Sunday after a boat chase in the Bahamas.
Bahamaian officials on Monday announced they intend to charge him with a litany of crimes, including weapons violations. An allegedly unlicensed handgun was among the evidence police seized from Harris-Moore during his arrest.
The Camano Island fugitive is expected to make a court appearance in Nassau Tuesday. Bahamian courts were closed Monday for a national holiday.
Diplomats from the American consulate checked on the prisoner Sunday and called his mother, Pam Kohler, to tell her he appeared in good health, Seattle attorney John Henry Browne told KIRO-TV Monday.
“I am very relieved that Colt is now safe and that no one was hurt during his capture,” Kohler said in a statement released by another Seattle attorney, O. Yale Lewis. He specializes in entertainment law.
Kohler said she hadn’t spoken to her son.
“It has been over two and a half years since I have seen him, and I miss him terribly,” she said in her statement. “I hope that it will be possible for me to see him sometime soon. However, I don’t yet know when that might happen.”
Browne, the defense attorney, said he’s been retained by Harris-Moore’s relatives, but the fugitive has not sought his counsel.
“I have yet to hear from him,” he said.
Harris-Moore currently faces a single federal charge in connection with a stolen plane that crashed near Granite Falls late last year. He’s also charged in Washington state courts in Island and San Juan counties, as well as in Nebraska.
Harris-Moore likely will face numerous additional charges as police in eight states, Canada and the Bahamas assemble evidence and present it to prosecutors.
The arrest in the Bahamas ended a two-year crime spree. Harris-Moore is a prime suspect in more than 70 crimes, federal officials said.
In Warrenton, Ore., Police Chief Matt Workman said his detectives still are waiting for analysis of physical evidence taken from a burglary and theft June 1 at the Astoria Regional Airport.
“I will also check with our district attorney to determine if they want to pursue a case with the circumstantial evidence we have,” Workman said. “Of course, that will be solely up to them as to whether or not to charge anyone for any crime. I have also turned our reports and evidence over to the FBI if they would choose to charge him on their level.”
Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, said she expects U.S. officials will seek to extradite Harris-Moore after criminal proceedings conclude in the Bahamas.
Once repatriated, Harris-Moore will be taken to a federal detention center in Sea-Tac, she said.
“There will be no jailhouse interviews here,” Langlie said.
Browne said he would argue to consolidate all the U.S. criminal proceedings in federal court, if he represents the defendant.
Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks said Monday he believes the oldest cases against Harris-Moore should take precedence. He’s had charges pending against Harris-Moore since 2008 for crimes committed when he escaped custody.
“I would hope that the cases are handled in chronological order,” Banks said. “Older cases are more urgent, because witnesses and evidence tend to get stale as time goes on.”
Banks said he plans to discuss his Harris-Moore case this week with federal prosecutors.
Word of the teen’s arrest sparked intense media attention around the world and on the Internet.
“Free Colton” T-shirts now are being sold at some Web sites.
“Hang in there brother!,” one fan wrote on Harris-Moore’s Facebook fan page. “I’m so sorry to hear you are arrested!!”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437; jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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