SEATTLE — Colton Harris-Moore won’t be getting out of his sentence early, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Friday.
Harris-Moore became infamous as the Barefoot Bandit for a prolific, two-year crime spree, during which he committed 67 state and federal crimes. He left a wake of stolen cars and planes in his path, and eventually crashed a Cessna 400 in the Bahamas, where he was finally arrested in July 2010.
He’s now 28. Last month he argued he’s a changed man and that the court should cancel his supervised release, which ends in September.
Writing to Judge Richard Jones, Harris-Moore said the supervision has prevented him from a lucrative career in public speaking, and he could be earning $10,000 per speech “at the low end.” He’s also unable to see friends in far-flung countries such as France, China or South Korea, he said.
Jones wasn’t convinced, and denied Harris-Moore’s request in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
In the decision, he wrote that Harris-Moore apparently never asked his probation officer if he could travel. Instead, Harris-Moore tried to circumvent the process by going to the court, Jones wrote.
In paperwork previously filed in court, the defense denied that claim, saying Harris-Moore had talked to his probation officer multiple times about traveling both domestically and internationally.
But, Jones wrote, the probation officer denied having any such conversations. Harris-Moore once asked about moving to Arizona, but “that is significantly different than a routine travel authorization request,” the judge wrote.
Regarding Harris-Moore’s public speaking business, the argument was scant on details, the decision says.
At best, the court received a “terse summary” that Harris-Moore was a potential participant for the History Channel’s TV show “Alone,” which bills itself as “the ultimate test of human survival and endurance.”
“The defendant has failed, however, to provide this court with a single declaration, communication or confirmed offer from any person or entity verifying or providing any detail or specifics on whether the defendant’s engagement with these TV shows were real opportunities or just exploratory communications,” Jones wrote.
Jones congratulated Harris-Moore for meeting the terms of his supervision, but rejected the idea that the only way Harris-Moore can act as a role model is to be able to travel and conduct business without restriction.
“He fails to appreciate that another way to serve as an example to others is to satisfy his complete sentence for the myriad of egregious crimes he committed and damage he did to the lives of a number of victims,” Jones wrote.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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