Erie PA Collar-Bomb Case

My office has been working very diligently with agents from the FBI, ATF and the Pennsylvania State Police for more than three years since the bizarre death on August 28, 2003, of Brian Wells. I met for three hours with agents from the state police, from the FBI, from the ATF and from the United States Attorney's Office, both here, in the Pittsburgh Division, and in the Erie Division.

We had a very productive meeting. We reviewed all of the information that has been collected to date. I am very encouraged by the information that has been collected. This investigation has been extremely difficult.

The agents have done a tremendous job in piecing together very complicated pieces of a very long and protracted investigation. Based upon the information that has been collected, we now believe that we have a much better understanding of what happened on August 28, 2003. This investigation is nearing a close, and we hope that it will be concluded in the very near future.

Breaking news:

Quote:

Federal authorities have figured out how a pizza deliveryman wound up in the middle of a bizarre bank robbery scheme that ended with a bomb around his neck exploding and the identities of the plotters, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

joe:

Do you think the U.S. Attorney is wise not to say too much at this point?

Wells linked to Barnes
(By Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News, February 25, 2007)

Murdered pizza deliveryman Brian Wells is believed to have known at least one of the people under investigation in his bombing death.

A convicted prostitute who said the FBI has questioned her in the Wells case told the Erie Times-News that Wells knew Kenneth E. Barnes, a convicted drug dealer whose residence was searched as part of the Wells probe.

That connection marks the first time Wells has been tied publicly to any of the people at the center of the investigation into his killing.

The night before Wells was killed in August 2003, the 27-year-old woman said, she and Wells, 46, spoke to Barnes at the corner of East 11th and Parade streets in Erie.

The woman, an admitted user of crack cocaine, said "Brian was driving me around, looking for crack."

The woman said she saw Barnes on the corner and asked him if he could help her find drugs. The woman said Barnes wanted money up front, so she declined Barnes' offer.

The woman, an Erie resident, also said she and Wells regularly visited the house where Barnes lived at 617 Perry St. -- the same house the FBI raided in connection with the Wells case in March and May 2006.

The woman said she and Wells would go to Barnes' residence for "tricks," meaning Wells would pay her for sex.

"Brian went there so he could trick with me," the woman said. "I knew Brian from prostitution and Kenny from smoking crack."

The link the woman made between Wells and Barnes connects Wells to other people who have become figures in the investigation into his death.

Those people are convicted murderer Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 57, who fished with the 53-year-old Barnes; Diehl-Armstrong's onetime fiance, William A. Rothstein, who died of cancer at age 60 in July 2004; and Rothstein's one-time housemate, Floyd A. Stockton Jr., 59, a convicted rapist.

Of Diehl-Armstrong and the others, the woman said, she knew only Barnes.

The woman said the FBI first questioned her in the hours after Wells was killed, and that agents got her name because she was one of the last people to leave a message on Wells' answering machine before his death from the bomb blast on Aug. 28, 2003. She said she left her phone number.

The woman said the FBI has questioned her repeatedly, most recently on Tuesday. She said agents again asked her about Diehl-Armstrong, Rothstein and Stockton.

The Erie Times-News is not using the woman's name because she has not been charged in the Wells case and because she said she feared for her safety if her identity were made public.

The Erie Times-News verified the woman's prior criminal record through court documents. The newspaper also substantiated the woman's remarks through interviews with another person who had knowledge of her whereabouts the night before Wells was killed.

The court records show the woman pleaded guilty to prostitution charges for incidents in November 1999 and July 2003, and pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct connected to a prostitution investigation in May 2004.

The woman's sentences ranged from probation to a treatment program to a $100 fine. In the one case, she was later sentenced to Erie County Prison for a probation revocation.

The prostitute who said she knew Wells also told the Erie Times-News she knew only one other person whose name has come up in the Wells probe -- Robert Pinetti, who delivered pizzas with Wells. The woman said she became acquainted with Pinetti when she visited Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria in Millcreek Township, where Wells and Pinetti worked.

Pinetti, 43, was found dead of an apparent drug overdose in his Lawrence Park home three days after Wells' death. The FBI has said little about Pinetti's death, other than that the timing of it was peculiar.

The woman also said she knew nothing of the plot that killed Wells. The FBI said Wells robbed what was then the PNC Bank in the Summit Towne Centre, on upper Peach Street, with a bomb locked to his neck, and the bomb exploded after he left the bank. Notes recovered in the probe show that Wells was supposed to go on a scavenger hunt after he robbed the bank, with each stop containing instructions for how to defuse the bomb.

The FBI has not said whether agents believe Wells willingly or unwillingly participated in the scheme that ended in his death. The woman said Wells had a gentle nature, and she said she does not believe he would have willingly taken part in the plot.

"He had nothing to do with that," she said.

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The FBI is believed to be waiting on the results of lab tests on scores of items seized in raids by the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Pennsylvania State Police. In addition, a number of the main people known to be connected to the Wells probe -- Rothstein, Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes -- are either dead or in prison, giving investigators more time to gather and evaluate evidence.

The convicted prostitute said she expects to talk to the FBI again soon, based on what she said the investigators told her on Tuesday. She said she would tell the FBI, once again, that she knew Wells and Barnes, that Wells also knew Barnes, and that she and Wells made regular visits to Barnes' house.

"I took him there," the woman said.

Probe turns to threats
(By Tim Hahn, Erie Times News, March 5, 2007)

When Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong filed a private criminal complaint against four people she accused of robbing her of $133,000 in May 2003, she included an unusual claim against one of them.

She alleged that Kenneth E. Barnes had once offered to kill Diehl-Armstrong's father for $100,000.

Investigators trying to solve the bombing death of Brian Wells are looking at that statement as something more than an idle offer.

Sources with knowledge of the case confirmed that investigators are exploring whether Wells' death was somehow connected to any plot against Diehl-Armstrong's father, 88-year-old Harold Diehl.

A possible plot against Harold Diehl is mentioned in two legal documents the FBI is known to be reviewing -- the private criminal complaint and the transcript of a court hearing involving Diehl-Armstrong and the late William A. Rothstein, another figure in the Wells investigation.

The FBI is focusing on whether the purported plot to kill Harold Diehl might have been related to Diehl-Armstrong's interest in an inheritance from her father, the sources confirmed. The legal records involved provide no indication of how that issue might be tied to the Wells case.

Harold Diehl said in an interview that he was once worth at least $500,000. A portion of that came from the estate of his late wife, Agnes E. Diehl, who died at age 83 on July 16, 2000.

Agnes E. Diehl also left some money to Diehl-Armstrong, who was her only child, according to court records. Court records from 2000 indicate Diehl-Armstrong also believed her father possessed up to $2 million in bonds.

Diehl-Armstrong, 57, has been a central focus of the FBI's investigation into Wells' death on Aug. 28, 2003.

Rothstein, who died at age 60 in July 2004, was also questioned extensively by investigators in the Wells case.

Barnes, 53, an acquaintance of Diehl-Armstrong's who also knew Wells, was questioned by investigators and had his former residence searched as part of the Wells probe.

It's not clear how the mentions of a plot against Harold Diehl might fit in with the scheme that led to Wells having a bomb locked around his neck before he was sent to rob a bank and then on a scavenger hunt-type journey.

That journey ended shortly after Wells robbed what was then a PNC Bank branch off upper Peach Street. After state police cornered Wells near the bank, the bomb exploded, killing the 46-year-old pizza delivery driver.

FBI officials investigating the Wells case declined comment, citing their ongoing probe. Erie police have said officers investigated Diehl-Armstrong's private criminal complaint, but made no arrests. The FBI has reviewed the private criminal complaint as part of its Wells investigation.

Hooker testifies to links in Wells case
(By Ed Palattella, Erie Times News, March 7, 2007)

A federal grand jury has heard from a witness who linked pizza deliveryman Brian Wells to Kenneth E. Barnes, a key figure in the investigation of Wells' bombing death.

The woman's testimony was expected to provide the grand jury with another thread of evidence as the jurors consider returning indictments in the baffling case of Wells, who was killed after he robbed a bank and then a bomb locked to his neck exploded on Aug. 28, 2003.

The witness, a 27-year-old convicted prostitute, testified before the grand jury at the U.S. District Courthouse in Erie. The woman confirmed to the Erie Times-News that she went before the grand jury, whose proceedings are secret.

She declined to discuss the specifics of her testimony, other than to say that her comments to the grand jury were similar to those she made to the Erie Times-News in an article published Feb. 25.

The woman said in that article that Wells knew Barnes, a convicted drug dealer whose residence was searched in the Wells probe in March and May 2006. The woman's revelation marked the first time Wells had been tied publicly to anyone at the center of the investigation into his killing.

The woman's lawyer, Daniel Brabender, also confirmed she had testified before the grand jury. He said he could not comment on what she said to the grand jury because he was not present.

Defense lawyers are prohibited from attending grand-jury sessions, though they are allowed to wait outside the room for consultation with the witness. Brabender was at the federal courthouse when the woman testified.

Witnesses who testify before federal grand juries are allowed to disclose the contents of their testimony. Grand jurors and others involved, including investigators and prosecutors, are prohibited from disclosing testimony. The chief federal prosecutor in Erie, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini, had no comment.

The Erie Times-News is not using the woman's name because she has not been charged in the Wells case and because she said she feared for her safety if her identity were made public.

The woman previously told the Erie Times-News that she knew Wells because he would pay her for sex, and she said that she and Wells would go to Barnes' then-residence, at 617 Perry St. The woman said she first met Wells in 1999.

The woman, an admitted user of crack cocaine, also said she knew Barnes through his use of crack. The woman told the Erie Times-News Wells did not use crack.

The woman said in the previous interview that the FBI first contacted her hours after Wells' death because she was one of the last people who left a message on his answering machine before he was killed.

The night before Wells was killed, the woman also said previously, she and Wells were driving around "looking for crack" when they saw Barnes at the corner of East 11th and Parade streets in Erie. The woman said she stopped and asked Barnes if he could help her find drugs, but then declined Barnes' offer when he asked for money up front.

The connection the woman made between Wells and Barnes provides a link to the other people who have been subjects of investigation in the Wells case.

Those people are convicted murderer and state prison inmate Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 57, who fished with the 53-year-old Barnes; Diehl-Armstrong's onetime fiance, William A. Rothstein, who died of cancer at age 60 in July 2004; and Rothstein's one-time housemate, Floyd A. Stockton Jr., 59, a convicted rapist.

Of the people in that group, the woman said, she knew only Barnes.

Barnes is in Erie County Prison. He was sentenced in August to serve 11½ to 23 months followed by 12 years of probation after pleading guilty to two felony counts of unlawful delivery of cocaine.

Newest links to day of bomb
(By Ed Palattella and Lisa Thompson, Erie Times-News, March 26, 2007)

Investigators have long known the telephone call that sent Brian Wells on his fated journey came from a pay phone outside the Shell station at Peach Street and Robison Road.

Authorities have never said who they believe placed that call.

But the Erie Times-News has learned that Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, a pivotal figure in the Wells probe, has put herself and two other well-known subjects in the Wells case at the Shell station the day Wells was killed in a bomb blast.

Diehl-Armstrong, the Erie Times-News has learned, has told the FBI she was at the Shell station on Aug. 28, 2003, sometime before Wells was murdered, and that she was with her acquaintance Kenneth E. Barnes and her one-time fiance, William A. Rothstein. Diehl-Armstrong told the FBI that Rothstein was using the pay phone at the time, the Erie Times-News has learned.

In addition, the Erie Times-News has reviewed investigative records in another case that show the fourth main person known to be part of the probe into Wells' death, Floyd A. Stockton Jr., Rothstein's one-time housemate, told the Pennsylvania State Police he was also at the Shell station on Aug. 28, 2003.

Stockton placed himself at the station at 2:30 p.m. -- sometime after Wells received the phone call but before Wells was killed, according to the investigative records.

"Stockton advised through conversation that he had been at the Shell station on Aug. 28, 2003 ... and he made a comment about it being odd about what was going on and his just happening to be at the Shell station then," according to the records.

The statements of Stockton and Diehl-Armstrong fall short of establishing who used the phone at the Shell station to make the phone call, which ordered pizzas and sent Wells, a 46-year-old pizza deliveryman, on his final pizza run before he was killed. Wells knew Barnes and met up with him briefly in Erie the night before Wells was killed, according to a witness who said she testified about the Wells case before a federal grand jury in Erie.

Diehl-Armstrong told the FBI she did not know whom Rothstein was calling. Rothstein cannot be questioned about the phone call now because he died in July 2004. And Stockton, in his statement to the state police, makes no mention of being with anyone else at the Shell station the day Wells was killed.

The statements of Diehl-Armstrong and Stockton nonetheless link all of the main subjects in the Wells investigation to one of the most important sites in the probe: the Shell station and its outdoor pay phone.

The site's significance is apparent even today, three years and seven months after Wells' death. The kiosk that held the phone is still outside the Shell station, at the edge of a parking lot, but the telephone is gone.

The FBI removed the handset from the telephone shortly after Wells died, and then the entire phone was removed. Investigators also obtained the Shell station's video surveillance tapes, though the station's cameras only tracked activity on the outside of the station, which includes a convenience store.

Investigators previously confirmed that the FBI believes the phone was used to place the call that triggered the plot that ended in Wells' death.

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Diehl-Armstrong has not responded to interview requests, and her lawyer in the Wells investigation, Thomas Patton, a federal public defender, has declined to comment on the case. Diehl-Armstrong has maintained she had no involvement in the plot.

Barnes, 53, whose residence was searched in connection with the Wells case twice in 2006, has not responded to interview requests. He is serving a sentence for cocaine trafficking at the Erie County Prison.

The lead FBI agent in the Wells case, Gerald Clark, declined comment, citing the Erie FBI's policy of not discussing specifics of the investigation. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, of Pittsburgh, whose office oversees the U.S. Attorney's Office in Erie, said a month ago that the investigation "is nearing a close."

Rothstein never publicly commented on his whereabouts the day Wells was killed. Before he died of cancer at age 60 in 2004, Rothstein referred questions about the Wells case to his lawyer, Gene Placidi.

Placidi has said that Rothstein was known to use the pay phone at the Shell station because the gas pumps and convenience store were near Rothstein's house at 8645 Peach St. But Placidi has also said he did not know whether Rothstein used the pay phone on Aug. 28, 2003.

Placidi reiterated those comments in an interview last week. He also said he did not know Rothstein's specific whereabouts on the day Wells was killed.

No parole for Barnes
(By Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News, April 30, 2007)

As the Brian Wells investigation moves forward, Kenneth E. Barnes is staying put.

Barnes, one of the main figures to emerge in the probe of Wells' bombing death, remains jailed at the Erie County Prison for his conviction on unrelated cocaine-delivery charges.

Barnes is staying behind bars despite being eligible for parole Feb. 23.

Most inmates at the Erie County Prison are released once they are eligible for parole, the county's top parole official said.

But like any other inmate at the Erie County Prison, Barnes also has no guarantee of parole, and county officials said the reasons a judge denies parole are confidential.
No one is commenting on whether Barnes is being kept incarcerated because of the FBI's interest in him in the bombing death of Wells, a 46-year-old pizza deliveryman, on Aug. 28, 2003.

At the same time, however, Barnes' inability to get out of prison means he will stay behind bars as the Wells investigation progresses. His incarceration will allow the FBI to know his precise whereabouts until he is released from the Erie County Prison after his maximum sentence expires on Feb. 8, 2008.

The FBI has been concerned about keeping track of Barnes if he were to be released, a friend of Barnes told the Erie Times-News. The friend was in the Erie County Prison with Barnes for several months, and the friend said FBI agents visited him at his house in late February, after he had been released from prison.

"They said, 'Do you think he'll run? We have information that he will run,'" the friend said.

"He has nowhere to run," the friend said he told the FBI. "He has family here."

The friend said he had never met Barnes before seeing him at the prison. The friend, 45, was paroled from the Erie County Prison in December after serving a marijuana-related sentence that started in July, according to court records.

The friend asked that his name not be used because he said he fears retaliation over his friendship with Barnes. Court records confirm the man was in the Erie County Prison at the same time as Barnes. The friend said he never discussed the details of the Wells case with Barnes while the two were in prison.

FBI officials in Erie declined comment on Barnes and the Wells case. The officials typically have not discussed the details of the investigation, citing policy. No one has been charged in the case, which has been before a federal grand jury in Erie.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, of Pittsburgh, who oversees the U.S. Attorney's Office in Erie, said in February that the Wells investigation "is nearing a close."

Barnes, 53, has not responded to interview requests the Erie Times-News has made in writing and through his friend.

The FBI's concern about Barnes being a possible flight risk is another indication of the federal government's sustained interest in Barnes in the Wells case. The FBI has questioned Barnes in the Wells case and twice in 2006 searched his then-residence on Perry Street in Erie in connection with the Wells probe.