Prosecutor: Focus on collar bomb defendants' words

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A federal prosecutor says an Erie woman was involved “up to her eyeballs” in a bizarre bank robbery plot that ended in the death of a pizza deliver driver forced to rob a bank while wearing a metal bomb collar around his neck.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini summed up his case for jurors today in the trial of 61-year-old Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong. Her attorney will give his closing argument after a lunch break, after which the prosecutor can make a rebuttal argument to the jury, which has heard eight days of testimony.

Piccinini says the best evidence against the defendant is statements she made to federal agents and others in the months and years after the Aug. 28, 2003, robbery that killed Brian Wells. He spent about 80 minutes detailing evidence he says matches statements authorities believe she made.