'Barefoot Bandit' gets 6 1/2-year federal prison sentence
SEATTLE - Colton Harris-Moore, aka the "Barefoot Bandit," was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for a multi-state crime spree that began in Western Washington and ended two years later with his capture in the Bahamas.
The sentence was handed down in U.S. District Court in Seattle after Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to federal charges.
The federal prison term will be served concurrently with a seven-year sentence handed down earlier in Island County Superior Court, after Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to dozens of state charges.
Harris-Moore, 20, gained international notoriety while evading police across the country in stolen planes, boats and cars during a two-year crime spree.
He sometimes committed his burglaries and thefts while barefooted, earning him the nickname "Barefoot Bandit." Fans followed him on Facebook, many of them urging him to continue his brazen crimes.
At Friday's sentencing hearing, Harris-Moore addressed the court for the first time and said he is "lucky to be alive."
He promised to make restitution to his multiple victims, and Judge Richard Jones ordered him to do so, with the amount to be determined later.
His daring run from the law earned him a movie deal to help repay his victims after he flew a stolen plane from Indiana to the Bahamas in July 2010, crash-landed it near a mangrove swamp and was arrested by Bahamian authorities in a hail of bullets.
The sentence was handed down in U.S. District Court in Seattle after Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to federal charges.
The federal prison term will be served concurrently with a seven-year sentence handed down earlier in Island County Superior Court, after Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to dozens of state charges.
Harris-Moore, 20, gained international notoriety while evading police across the country in stolen planes, boats and cars during a two-year crime spree.
He sometimes committed his burglaries and thefts while barefooted, earning him the nickname "Barefoot Bandit." Fans followed him on Facebook, many of them urging him to continue his brazen crimes.
At Friday's sentencing hearing, Harris-Moore addressed the court for the first time and said he is "lucky to be alive."
He promised to make restitution to his multiple victims, and Judge Richard Jones ordered him to do so, with the amount to be determined later.
His daring run from the law earned him a movie deal to help repay his victims after he flew a stolen plane from Indiana to the Bahamas in July 2010, crash-landed it near a mangrove swamp and was arrested by Bahamian authorities in a hail of bullets.