Suspect denies role in bank robbery

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A woman accused of planning an elaborate bank robbery that ended in the death of a pizza deliveryman in 2003 says she is “totally innocent” of the charges and denies making incriminating statements to federal investigators, a newspaper reported.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 58, was indicted in July along with Kenneth Barnes, 53, on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy and a firearms violation in connection with the Aug. 28, 2003, robbery of a PNC Bank in Summit Township.

Pizza deliveryman Brian Wells, 46, told police he had been forced at gunpoint to wear a time bomb around his neck and rob the bank. As officers waited for the bomb squad to arrive, the device exploded, killing Wells. Both Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes have pleaded innocent.

“I am totally innocent in this case,” Diehl-Armstrong told the Erie Times-News in two telephone calls over the last two weeks. “I didn’t even know Brian Wells. I’m a decent person. I try to get by in life.”

Wells was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator, although prosecutors have said his role might have “transitioned from that of the planning stages to being an unwilling participant.” His family insists that he did not know the suspects and had nothing to do with the plot.

Prosecutors contend that Diehl-Armstrong planned to use the bank money to hire someone to kill her father.

She is serving seven to 20 years at the state prison in Muncy after pleading guilty but mentally ill to killing her boyfriend, James Roden, 45, in 2003. Prosecutors said she killed Roden because she feared he would tell authorities of the plot.

Authorities said in unsealed search warrants and court records that Diehl-Armstrong repeatedly spoke with investigators in the Wells case and linked herself to the bomb that killed him, but she denied to the newspaper that she made such statements.

“I never said that stuff,” she said. “They wanted me to say that stuff. ... My life is on the line. By God, I didn’t do these crimes.”