Barefoot Bandit pleads guilty

Dec 16, 2011, 19:28 GMT

Seattle - A young thief whose daring exploits turned him into a folk hero with the name the Barefoot Bandit pleaded guilty Friday to 33 state felony charges, which carry a maximum sentence of almost ten years.

Colton Harris-Moore, 20, gained international renown when he evaded authorities trying to apprehend him from 2008 to 2010 for a string of daring robberies and escapes using stolen airplanes.

Harris-Moore has also pleaded guilty on several federal charges on which he will face sentencing next month.

Prosecutors asked judge Vickie Churchill to impose the maximum sentence on Harris-Moore, who they said was a 'menace' who made people afraid to leave their homes. 'He made decisions, he showed very poor judgement and continued to commit crime after crime after crime,' the prosecutor told the court.

Harris-Moore was arrested in 2010 following a two-year crime spree which ended when he crash-landed a stolen plane in a Bahamas mango grove after flying it from Indiana.

He embarked on his burglary exploits after escaping from a juvenile lock-up and breaking into empty vacation homes on remote islands in Washington state. He earned his nickname by often committing his crimes while not wearing shoes and leaving his footprints in the sand.

He later stole five small planes from rural airports and crash-landed them.

Defence lawyers blamed his criminal proclivity on his deprived childhood in which he was raised in a trailer by an alcoholic mother.

Harris-Moore has agreed to provide restitution to his victims and has reportedly sold the film rights to his story to Fox in a deal that could be worth 1.3 million dollars.

Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for writing the movie Milk, is working on the screenplay and has met with Harris-Moore several times at the Federal Detention Centre in SeaTac, near Seattle, Washington, according to Lance Rosen, Harris-Moore's entertainment lawyer.