VWH Campbell, Post-Gazette
Rose Marie Wells, mother of Brian Wells, is comforted by her daughter, Barbara Wells White, at yesterday's news conference. The U.S. attorney's comments implicating Mr. Wells were met with shouts of "liar!" from Barbara Wells White.By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ERIE -- Brian Wells, the 46-year-old pizza delivery man killed by a collar bomb shortly after telling police that unknown people had forced him to rob a bank, was actually one of four conspirators in the bizarre robbery plot, federal authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan made the revelation at a news conference yesterday during which she announced that a federal grand jury sitting in Erie had indicted city residents Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes in the Aug. 28, 2003, robbery. The fourth person involved in the plot, William Rothstein, who once was Ms. Diehl-Armstrong's boyfriend, has since died of natural causes.

The nearly four-year investigation by the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Pennsylvania State Police, involved more than 1,000 interviews and nearly as many leads, said Ms. Buchanan.

The case has received worldwide attention for its intricate planning and ghastly conclusion. A similar plot involving bank robberies by people wearing collar bombs was subsequently used in an episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Only on screen, certainly not in real life, is where one might expect to find such a "twisted plot," said Mark Potter, ATF special agent in charge.

"This investigation was about greed that created fear and resulted in death," he said. "The brutality and utter lack of respect for life displayed by the indicted is rarely seen outside of a movie screen."

Ms. Buchanan described Mr. Wells as "both a participant and a victim" in the complex plot that involved him responding to a pizza delivery call only to be next seen in the PNC Bank on Peach Street, wearing a bomb locked to his neck. He gave handwritten notes to a teller, seemingly from his captors, demanding money and also giving directions that he was to follow or else be killed by the bomb.

State police stopped Mr. Wells shortly after the bank robbery and handcuffed him but the bomb detonated shortly thereafter, killing him. Before the explosion, he told troopers he was forced to rob the bank by people he didn't know. Investigators discovered nine pages of handwritten notes sprinkled with maps and drawings that gave instructions for Mr. Wells to follow.

Ms. Buchanan said three of the conspirators wrote the notes in both an effort to throw off investigators and to make Mr. Wells' story about being a hostage seem valid. Part of the conspiracy, Ms. Buchanan said, was that if Mr. Wells didn't turn over the proceeds from the robbery to his co-conspirators he would die; if captured, he could claim he was a hostage; and if he died, he couldn't be a witness against the others.

Ms. Buchanan declined to elaborate on evidence gathered in the probe that supported the indictment. However, the indictment noted that "others" were present during planning for the robbery, raising the possibility that an unnamed person or persons may be cooperating with investigators.

Ms. Buchanan's comments about Mr. Wells participating in the planning and execution of the robbery were met several times with shouts of "Liar!" from Barbara Wells White, one of Mr. Wells' sisters. She, along with Mr. Wells' surviving mother and siblings, attended the news conference in the U.S. Court House.

The family has steadfastly proclaimed Mr. Wells' innocence, and throughout the investigation criticized state and federal authorities for not seeing things the same way. Yesterday, a brother, John Wells, said Mr. Wells was "completely innocent and a murder victim," adding that Mr. Wells knew none of the people who federal officials said were involved in the plot.

While evidence suggests Mr. Wells may have had a change of heart when the explosive device was locked onto him, he still went through with the robbery, Ms. Buchanan noted.

Again, Ms. White erupted: "What would you do with a bomb around your neck, Mary Beth? What would you do?"

Ms. Diehl-Armstrong and Mr. Barnes, both in prison for unrelated crimes, are charged with armed bank robbery and using a destructive device in a crime of violence and conspiracy. Ms. Buchanan said she is seeking terms of life imprisonment.

Ms. Diehl-Armstrong, 58, was portrayed as the mastermind of the intricate, complex robbery plot. Authorities said her aim was to get money to pay for Mr. Barnes to kill her father, although the indictment did not explain why.

She currently is serving a prison sentence of seven to 20 years for fatally shooting her live-in boyfriend, James Roden. Ms. Buchanan said Ms. Diehl-Armstrong committed that slaying in the same month as the bank robbery to keep Mr. Roden from divulging the robbery the other four were plotting.

Thomas W. Patton, assistant federal public defender who is representing Ms. Diehl-Armstrong, said his client "denies the allegations made in the indictment and will enter a not guilty plea at her arraignment."

A similar response came from attorney Alison Scarpitti, who has represented Mr. Barnes in the past as a court-appointed attorney in a drug case.

Mr. Barnes currently is serving a sentence of 11 to 23 months in the Erie County Prison on a drug conviction.

Ms. Buchanan conceded that investigators were at a loss to explain what possessed Mr. Wells to get involved in such a complex, strange plot that eventually cost him his life. Nor could she say that he was fully aware of the bomb's construction or that detonation was set to a specific time.

"We do not know the extent to which the others planned on him dying that day," she said. "But we do know, unfortunately, that Brian participated in a limited role in the planning and in the carrying out of this robbery," said Ms. Buchanan, who met with the Wells family before the news conference to reveal what would be said.

According to the indictment, the following occurred:

Ms. Diehl-Armstrong solicited Mr. Barnes in July 2003 to assist in robbing a bank and asked him to kill her father, saying she would pay him from the proceeds of the bank robbery. She also asked him to show her how to build a pipe bomb and asked about the use of timers as detonators..

That same month, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong provided Mr. Rothstein -- identified in the document as "unindicted co-conspirator W.R" -- with two kitchen egg timers for use in the bomb.

The next month, but prior to the robbery on Aug. 28, 2003, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong fatally shot her live-in boyfriend, Mr. Roden, to keep him from disclosing the bank robbery plan then being hatched. Mr. Rothstein, who died in 2004, helped Ms. Diehl-Armstrong hide Mr. Roden's body.

On Aug. 27, 2003, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Wells and Mr. Rothstein "and others" who are not identified met at Mr. Rothstein's house on Peach Street in Erie and discussed their plans to rob the PNC Bank the next day.

On the day of the robbery, Ms. Diehl-Armstrong and Mr. Barnes drove together to a Shell gas station on Peach Street and met there with Mr. Rothstein. At about 1:30 p.m., Mr. Rothstein used a pay phone there to call Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria and ordered two pizzas for delivery to an address that was near a television tower located at the end of a dirt driveway next to his home.

About 15 minutes later, the four co-conspirators met in the area of the tower site where the bomb was affixed to Mr. Wells' neck and torso.

"It may be that his role transitioned from that of the planning stages to being an unwilling participant in this scheme," Ms. Buchanan noted.

Ms. Diehl-Armstrong and Mr. Barnes then drove to the bank's parking lot where they acted as lookouts. Mr. Wells entered the bank at 2:20 p.m., presented the teller with a demand note and exited two minutes later with $8,702.

Mr. Wells was quickly stopped by state police and Ms. Diehl-Armstrong and Mr. Barnes drove away from the area.

On Sept. 14, Mr. Rothstein discarded about 1,040 pounds of refuse in an Erie landfill to hide evidence that could link the co-conspirators to the crime. What was in that refuse was not revealed.

VWH Campbell, Post-Gazette
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan listens to Capt. Kevan Dugan of the Pennsylvania State Police discuss the case yesterday.
Click photo for larger image.

First Published: July 12, 2007, 3:30 a.m.