Attorney: Man to plead guilty in 2003 collar-bomb death

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, of Erie, 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.

But Mead said he expects federal prosecutors will file a 5(k) letter on Barnes’ behalf. Such a letter advises a judge of a defendant’s cooperation with law enforcement and a judge may consider it in imposing a lower-than-expected sentence.

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. The judge asked to be notified within 120 days if Diehl-Armstrong’s condition improves enough for her to stand trial.

Barnes is pleading guilty because he helped with the plot, but Mead insisted he was “a very minor player in the entire event.”

“The problem was that he was still a player, therefore he was involved in the conspiracy,” Mead said. “That’s why he was charged with it and that’s why he’s got to plead guilty to it.”

Asked to describe Barnes’ role, Mead said, “I think he was there and he may have driven some people around. But he certainly didn’t manufacture anything and he wasn’t the mastermind.”

The indictment says Diehl-Armstrong asked Barnes how to make a pipe bomb the month before the robbery and told Barnes she wanted to use the money from the heist to pay Barnes to kill her father. Prosecutors have said Diehl-Armstrong was upset with her father about an inheritance dispute.

The indictment doesn’t accuse Barnes of helping to make the bomb or the collar, but Mead said he faces the aiding and abetting charge because the device was used as part of the plot.

The day of the heist, Barnes drove Diehl-Armstrong and others involved to various places and, the day before, discussed the plan with the others, the indictment said.

Diehl-Armstrong 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.

Prosecutors said she killed Roden because she feared he would tell authorities of the bank robbery plot.

Rothstein helped make the time bomb that killed Wells and phoned in the pizza order used to lure Wells to a secluded spot on a dead-end road, the indictment said. That’s where Wells told authorities he was accosted, though authorities have never said by whom, and forced to wear the bomb.