Harris-Moore emerges the winner as he slips from the headlines
After last week’s federal sentencing Colton Harris- Moore’s media nickname will fade from the front pages and top stories of news’ outlets, a welcomed omission for most people – especially his victims (see front page story).
With his concurrent sentences of seven years and three months handed out by Island County Supreme Court, and six and a half years in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday, his attorneys did an impressive job of presenting their client as a victim of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and convincing the court of his remorse.
Still, Colton’s statements of regret and apologies in court were suspicious and hard to believe.
His arrogance was well polished during the two years he spent on the lam. After 33 crimes in Island, San Juan and Snohomish counties, along with seven federal crimes and two dozen more across the U.S. that involved five stolen planes that he managed to crash land, his lack of respect for other peoples’ property was well known.
So, when a sentencing memorandum was released last Tuesday that compared statements he made in a letter to Island County Supreme Court stating his remorse, with e-mails intercepted where he refers to police and prosecutors as “swines, fools and asses,” the truth emerged.
Nonetheless, the judge in U.S. District court took his childhood into consideration before sentencing him to the prosecutor’s recommended sentence of 78 months.
Colton still comes out the victor; even if he does end up serving his entire sentence, he’ll be free before his 30th birthday.
We hope it’s enough time for him to put aside the invincibility he spoke of in his intercepted e-mails, wherein he refers to himself as equal to the Wright Brothers.
If he can utilize his intelligence and learn to channel his aptitude for flying airplanes into a future of serving the very public he took advantage of, an entirely different movie might be made in another decade that depicts Colton quite differently than one about to be released.
– Kelly Ruhoff
Editor
