Lawyer: Bomb-plot suspect mentally ill

The accused has also filed a motion seeking a new
lawyer.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman charged in a bizarre bank robbery scheme that killed a pizza deliveryman with a bomb locked onto his neck is now listed in court records as her own attorney, but her court-appointed lawyer believes she is mentally ill.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 58, is awaiting trial on charges stemming from the August 2003 robbery plot. The deliveryman, Brian Wells, told police he had been forced at gunpoint to wear a time bomb around his neck and rob the bank. The device exploded as police waited for a bomb squad to arrive.

Diehl-Armstrong and her federal public defender, Thomas Patton, have been sparring since she filed a handwritten motion two weeks ago asking to have Patton replaced. She called Patton “incompetent,” and said she needed a new attorney because he lacks “fire in the belly” and charisma.

Patton on Friday said he did not know why Armstrong is now listed in court records as representing herself, but he declined to comment further on the case.

U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin, however, has determined that Diehl-Armstrong’s motion for a new attorney will wait until after questions about her mental competency are answered.

Patton asked to have Diehl-Armstrong placed in the custody of the Pennsylvania Attorney General and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Patton said in court papers that he has met several times with Diehl-Armstrong and “has reasonable cause to believe that she is currently suffering from a mental disease or defect” that makes her unable to assist in her defense. He also noted that Diehl-Armstrong has been found mentally incompetent in past court cases.

Federal prosecutors have yet to file a response, but have said they do not concede Diehl-Armstrong is mentally incompetent to stand trial. They would prefer she be evaluated by a psychiatrist with the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Diehl-Armstrong, of Erie, is serving a seven- to 20-year sentence in state prison for pleading guilty but mentally ill to killing her boyfriend, James Roden, in 2003. Prosecutors allege Roden, 45, was killed because he knew of the collar-bomb robbery plot, the proceeds of which Diehl-Armstrong allegedly wanted to use to hire someone to kill her father.

Diehl-Armstrong has called the Erie Times-News from the Muncy state prison to say that she is sane and able to stand trial. The Associated Press could not get a message to Diehl-Armstrong at the prison Friday.

Diehl-Armstrong’s friend Kenneth Barnes, 54, also is charged in the plot.

Wells’ family says he did not know Diehl-Armstrong or Barnes and was forced to participate in the bank robbery. The government has characterized the 46-year-old as an unindicted co-conspirator who may not have realized that Diehl-Armstrong planned to lock a live bomb onto his neck as part of the plot.