Erie bombing 'victim' was in on bank robbery

Erie, Pa. -- The man long considered a pathetic victim who was forced, with a bomb strapped to his chest, to rob a bank was actually in on the plot, according to indictments to be released today.

Indictments that will be released today will say pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was both a victim and a criminal in 2003, when he robbed a bank wearing a collar bomb that exploded. He went along with the crime, believing that the bomb would be fake.

Brian Wells

A federal grand jury indicted Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 58, and Kenneth Barnes, 53, on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy and weapons charges.

A third person in the case, Floyd Stockton, 60, was given immunity in a deal with prosecutors to testify against Barnes and Diehl-Armstrong.

The charges come nearly four years after Wells, 46, a deliveryman for Mama-Mia's Pizza-Ria was killed when a bomb blew a softball-size hole in his chest.

Federal agents said Barnes and Diehl-Armstrong, along with her onetime boyfriend, William Rothstein, planned the robbery so that she would gain money to kill her father, Harold.

Erie collar bombing case: Audio, previous stories, background info

Janet B. Campbell/Associated press, Erie Times-NewsMembers of the bomb squad check Brian Wells' body for more explosives on Aug. 28, 2003 in Erie, Pa., after a bomb strapped to his chest exploded and killed him.

Diehl-Armstrong believed that her father shortchanged her over money from her mother's estate. Agnes Diehl died in July 2000.

Barnes had offered about $125,000 to kill Harold Diehl. To come up with the money, Barnes, Rothstein and Diehl-Armstrong planned the robbery.

Wells, according to authorities, was drawn into the plot through Barnes, whom he knew through a prostitute who often used Barnes' home as a place to have sex with customers.

Wells believed the bomb was going to be a fake. He thought that if he were arrested by police with the fake bomb, he would simply say he was a hostage, police said.

Wells' brother, John, said his brother was not involved in the plot.

"Absolutely not," John Wells said. "Brian had nothing to do with this. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to save their own skin."

About 1:30 p.m. Aug. 28, 2003, Brian Wells delivered two sausage and pepperoni pizzas to a secluded area where construction workers often toiled.

There, he met Rothstein, Barnes and Stockton, and they told him that the device was real. Wells tried to bolt, but they wrestled him to the ground and forced it on him. They gave him a nine-page letter that sent him on a scavenger hunt for clues that would get the device off his neck.

He robbed a branch of PNC Bank in the Summit Towne Center and found his first clue under a rock at a nearby McDonald's drive-through. He was headed for his second clue when police stopped him. They handcuffed him and made him sit in front of a patrol car until the bomb squad arrived.

The bomb went off at 3:18 p.m., killing Wells.

Erie collar bombing case: Audio, previous stories, background info, external links and more from The Plain Dealer