LEAD: Barefoot bandit gets 6.5 years for US plane, boat thefts

Jan 27, 2012, 22:34 GMT

San Francisco - A daredevil young robber whose infamous exploits turned him into a folk hero known as the Barefoot Bandit was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail Friday by a federal court in Seattle, Washington for a string of federal crimes.

Colton Harris-Moore, 20, gained international fame during a two-year chase that ended in the Bahamas in 2010. He was convicted of a string of daring robberies and escapes using stolen airplanes and luxury boats, and now is selling the movie rights to his exploits.

Harris-Moore was sentenced earlier this month to seven years in jail on Washington state charges and will serve the two sentences concurrently. He will also serve three years probation following his release, the Seattle Times reported.

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.

The self-taught teenage pilot 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.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his arrest, Harris-Moore expressed his regrets to the court Friday and said that despite the glamour associated with his crimes, he was lucky they hadn't killed him.

'What I did could be called daring, but it is no stretch of the imagination to say that I'm lucky to be alive,' he said when asked by District Judge Richard Jones what advice he would give to young people who admire him. 'I should have died years ago.'

Harris-Moore also called his journey through the legal system and the accompanying media scrutiny as 'the worst experience of my life.'

In an earlier written statement to the court, Harris-Moore said that he would use his time in jail to prepare for college, and that he hoped to study aeronautical engineering.

Harris-Moore has agreed to provide restitution to his victims and has reportedly sold the film rights to his story to Fox entertainment 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.

'My actions affected many people, and from a place of acceptance, humility and remorse I again apologize ... the day will come when things are made right,' Harris-Moore said in court.