In 2003, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong was angry at her father for spending her inheritance. She approached Kenneth Barnes, with whom she'd been friends since the late 1990s, and asked him if he'd be interested in killing her father.

Mr. Barnes jokingly responded that he'd need $200,000 for the job.

She said she'd get it.

So began the plot to rob an Erie bank that ended with one conspirator dead because a collar bomb he had once been measured for exploded around his neck.

Last week, both Ms. Diehl-Armstrong and Mr. Barnes were indicted for the Aug. 28, 2003, crime -- each charged with bank robbery, conspiracy and a weapons violation.

Another co-conspirator, William Rothstein, died from cancer before he could be charged.

Yesterday, a federal judge unsealed the 38-page affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Gerald C. Clark Jr. for a search warrant of Mr. Barnes' house in March 2006.

The document reveals the prosecution's entire case -- how the bomb was constructed, the pizza deliveryman's role in the crime and incriminating statements made by both defendants to the FBI.

In the months before the robbery, according to a series of interviews with Mr. Barnes in 2005 and 2006, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong spoke to him several times about robbing a bank.

Further, Mr. Barnes told FBI agents, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong targeted PNC bank because she was angry about finance charges against her, and that the bank was giving her father her inheritance.

In May 2003, while Mr. Barnes was doing remodeling work at Ms. Diehl-Armstrong's house, he twice saw Brian Wells deliver pizza there. In all, he said, Mr. Wells visited the home four or five times.

During that same time frame, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong asked Mr. Barnes if he knew anyone who could make a bomb.

In June or July, according to the affidavit, Mr. Barnes gave Ms. Diehl-Armstrong a green-and-beige circuit board and LED timer. Both a green-and-beige circuit board and LED timer were used in the collar bomb.

On the day before the robbery, Mr. Barnes said he, Mr. Rothstein, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong, a man named Floyd Stockton, who has not been charged, and Mr. Wells met at Mr. Rothstein's house.

"He overheard parts of the plan, included that Wells was to wear a fake explosive device into the bank," Mr. Clark wrote in the affidavit.

On the day of the robbery, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong picked Mr. Barnes up at his home in her red Jeep Cherokee before noon.

The two of them drove to the Shell gas station where the call for the pizza delivery was placed at 1:30 p.m.

They then went to Mr. Rothstein's house to wait for Mr. Wells.

"While there, Stockton went into the garage, got the collar bomb, which was covered in a white shirt, and handed it to Rothstein who carried it out of the garage," the affidavit read.

Later, Mr. Barnes and Ms. Diehl-Armstrong drove to a nearby business and parked so that they could see the bank.

Using binoculars, Mr. Barnes said he saw Mr. Wells, who was wearing the bomb, followed by Mr. Rothstein in his vehicle. Mr. Rothstein parked, and Mr. Barnes watched Mr. Wells enter the bank at 2:20 p.m.

He exited about 12 minutes later, carrying $8,702. He was very quickly apprehended by officers responding to the robbery.

She and Mr. Barnes then drove back to Mr. Rothstein's home. Later that day, a friend stopped at Mr. Rothstein's home and said he saw Mr. Rothstein and Mr. Stockton "freaking out," and stating, "We have to lay low and make ourselves scarce."

According to the affidavit, the collar bomb was "quite elaborate."

"The device was rigged to the collar assembly in such a way as to make it appear that attempts to remove the device would have detonated the device," Mr. Clark wrote in the affidavit. "Portions of the device were meant to appear to be 'booby traps,' but were not."

The collar assembly and framework, made out of angle iron, flat bar and steel, had been painted gray. It was held together with rivets, machine screws and something like epoxy.

Both a rivet gun and gray paint were recovered during the March 21, 2006, search of Mr. Barnes' home.

During interviews, Mr. Barnes denied that he'd ever made a bomb. But, Mr. Clark wrote, he went on to say what type of powder he'd use if he did, where he'd get the powder, and how long the length of pipe would be.

All of it, the affidavit said, was consistent with the bomb that killed Mr. Wells.

During the nearly four-year investigation, both Mr. Barnes and Ms. Diehl-Armstrong spoke with FBI agents repeatedly, allowing agents to build the case.

"Since the date of her arrest, Diehl-Armstrong has implicated William Rothstein, as well as herself, as being involved in the collar bomb plot," Mr. Clark wrote in the affidavit. He wrote that she had also confessed to fellow inmates at various correctional facilities where she'd been housed after killing her live-in boyfriend, James Roden.

One informant said Ms. Diehl-Armstrong discussed the case, saying that she killed Mr. Roden because he knew about the collar-bomb plot and threatened to tell the police.

That informant also said Ms. Diehl-Armstrong mentioned the involvement of Mr. Stockton, and said that Mr. Rothstein helped build the bomb.

Another person added that Mr. Rothstein and Mr. Wells knew each other, stating "they even measured Wells' neck for the device. Diehl-Armstrong further stated Wells had knowledge of the plan but did not know the extent of his part."

On July 5, 2005, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong admitted to police that Mr. Roden was killed because he was going to expose the collar-bomb plot.

She also told them, however that the financial motive was Mr. Rothstein's and related to the settlement of an estate.

She said that during the bank robbery, she was sitting in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken about a quarter-mile away.

When agents confronted Ms. Diehl-Armstrong with Mr. Barnes' statements, she got angry. She denied being with Mr. Barnes that day.

"Diehl-Armstrong then claimed for the first time that Rothstein must have purposefully directed her to be at specific locations associated with the collar bomb incident so that if he got caught, she would also be implicated," Mr. Clark wrote.

First Published: July 19, 2007, 3:30 a.m.