PITTSBURGH (AP) - A co-defendant in the bizarre bank robbery plot that led to the collar-bomb death of a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man more than five years ago will plead guilty next week, his defense attorney told The Associated Press on Friday.
Kenneth Barnes will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank robbery, and a second charge of aiding and abetting the use of the collar-bomb in the process, on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Erie, attorney Jamie Mead said.
Thursday was the five-year anniversary of the heist, during which delivery man Brian Wells, 46, told police he was forced at gunpoint to wear a pipe bomb locked onto his neck with a metal collar, and ordered to rob a bank just outside Erie. Police apprehended Wells and the time bomb exploded before a bomb squad arrived, killing Wells as he sat with his hands handcuffed behind his back in a parking lot.
Mead would not say specifically whether Barnes has agreed to testify against the alleged mastermind of the plot, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 59, of Erie.
The collar-bomb charge carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, and Barnes faces up to five more years for the conspiracy count.
U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin last month ruled Diehl-Armstrong is not mentally competent to stand trial, but said that could change depending on how she responds to medication and treatment. She is serving seven to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to killing her boyfriend, James Roden, 45, in the weeks leading up to the bank robbery. |