‘Barefoot Bandit’ pleads guilty for crime spree that was all over the map

For tens of thousands of fans from Italy to South America, Colton Harris-Moore was the “Barefoot Bandit,” a teenage fugitive whose odyssey of stolen planes, boats and expensive SUVs confounded sheriffs deputies and FBI agents for more than two years.

“Fly, Colton, fly!” some wrote on the Facebook page that sprang up to document his flight through three countries — a flight that ended last year when someone recognized him at a vacation resort in the Bahamas, resulting in a dramatic chase and, finally, his capture.

The adventure came to an official close Friday in federal court in Seattle, when a diffident-looking Harris-Moore, murmuring “Yes, sir” and “No, sir” to careful questioning by the judge, pleaded guilty to seven felony charges that will probably land him in prison for up to 6 1/2 years, or perhaps more.

Closely shorn and wearing a drab, light olive jail suit, Harris-Moore, now 20, smiled politely as he entered the courtroom and said little as Assistant U.S. Atty. Darwin Roberts read the long list of crimes to which the youthful runaway was admitting, including stealing planes that he flew across the country without a pilot’s license, snatching a boat and piloting it north across the Canadian border, and making off with a parade of high-end pickups and Cadillac SUVs stolen from garages, airports and driveways.

From his backwoods home on rural Camano Island, north of Seattle, Harris-Moore as a young teenager launched what authorities there liked to call a one-boy crime wave, breaking into neighbors’ homes and sheds and local convenience stores, often stealing only hot dogs and Gatorade before slipping into his hide-outs in the deep woods.

He eventually landed in a Renton, Wash., youth halfway house in 2008, only to escape. After that, he proceeded to stay two steps ahead of sheriffs from four Washington counties and, eventually, six states and British Columbia, before the Royal Bahamas Police Force nabbed him in July in a high-speed boat chase near Harbour Island.

“They’re after me. They’re going to kill me,” he told a security guard before throwing his computer and iPhone into the water and, briefly, aiming a gun at his own head.

Sitting in court, Harris-Moore hardly looked like someone whose Facebook page once had 58,000 fans. “He dislikes publicity intensely. He’s very nervous every time he’s in court,” his lawyer, John Henry Browne, told reporters.

He said Harris-Moore laughed briefly during the federal prosecutor’s reading of the offenses only because the attorney had neglected to mention the frozen dinner he’d stolen from one of his victims.

The crimes he did plead guilty to ran seven pages in his plea agreement. They included trying to break into an ATM in Eastsound, Wash., using tools stolen from a nearby Ace Hardware store; stealing a GPS system, a North Face sleeping bag and a Cessna T-182 from Boundary County, Idaho (later crash-landing the plane near Granite Falls, Wash.); stealing .32-caliber and .22-caliber semiautomatic pistols; flying a stolen Cirrus SR22 from Anacortes to Eastsound, Wash.; and stealing two boats, a pair of Bose headphones, a radio scanner and a variety of SUVs and high-end pickups.

A key part of the plea agreement is that any proceeds Harris-Moore might realize from books or movies documenting the years he spent underground would go to pay $1.4 million or more in restitution to victims. Lance Rosen, who is acting as the agent for Harris-Moore in negotiations for film rights, said no contract had been signed.

“Colton has never wanted to profit from this. He thinks it’s morally wrong,” Browne said.

“We’re here today to say that Mr. Harris-Moore’s flight from justice has ended. He has taken the first step to accept responsibility for his actions in the United States. He has pleaded guilty to seven felony charges, will spend a significant time in prison, and will not make one dime from his crimes,” U.S. Atty. Jenny Durkan told reporters.

Under the plea deal, prosecutors and the defense agreed to recommend a sentence ranging from 63 to 78 months in prison to Judge Richard A. Jones, who will make the ultimate decision at the sentencing hearing set for Oct. 28. Harris-Moore still faces several burglary and theft charges in four Washington counties and, as a result, could face an even longer prison term imposed in state court.

Randall Gaylord, prosecuting attorney for San Juan County, one of the counties with charges pending, said losses from various burglaries and thefts in his county alone totaled about $250,000. “The state prosecutors are anxious for the next step in these proceedings,” he said.

The most serious state charge Harris-Moore faces, burglary involving a firearm, carries a potential maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, Gaylord said.

Browne said Harris-Moore was prepared to admit to his crimes in federal court to avoid what could have become “a traveling road show” with potential trials lasting years across the country. “I think he feels very relieved and very grateful that everybody’s worked so hard” to consolidate the cases, Browne said.

After his release, Harris-Moore hopes to go to college, the attorney said. To study what?

“Aviation,” Browne deadpanned.

“Are you joking?” a reporter asked.

“Engineering,” he said.

kim.murphy@latimes.com