SEATAC, Wash. – Jonathan Standridge and Colton Harris-Moore made an odd couple as they sat together in the visiting room of a Washington state prison one day last spring.
Standridge, 57, is a project manager at Boeing, one of the world's most important aviation companies. Harris-Moore, 21, is the "Barefoot Bandit," a world-famous airplane thief who is serving a seven-year sentence after a sensational run from the law in stolen boats, cars and planes.
As it turned out, they had a lot to discuss. Aerospace design. Books. And second chances.
"What have you heard about me?" Harris-Moore asked, Standridge recalled.
"I've read all about the `Barefoot Bandit,"' Standridge said. Harris-Moore replied: "That's not who I am."
Ever since, Standridge has returned to the prison in Aberdeen, a two-hour drive from his lakeside home in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac, at least once a month, hoping to have a positive influence on what has been a bleak, if sometimes thrilling, young life, and to repay a favor someone once did for him.
"This is a young man that is fully engaged in the rehabilitation process that we in society ask of those folks who are in our prison system," said Standridge, who has tutored Harris-Moore in the airplane business and a lot more.
The progress is threatened by new burglary and theft counts that could add to Harris-Moore's sentence, he said.
Standridge was lining up other aviation specialists to meet with Harris-Moore when the prisoner was transferred last month to the Skagit County Jail. Prosecuting Attorney Rich Weyrich said he filed the charges because the plea agreement other prosecutors reached with Harris-Moore in 2011 was too lenient. A hearing was set for Thursday.
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