A male billed with the museum heist of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the “The Wizard of Oz” was expected to change his plea to responsible in court docket Friday, pulling back the curtain on a whodunnit mystery relationship back again 18 several years.
Terry Jon Martin, 76, was indicted in May on one particular count of theft of a main artwork. The sneakers from the movie were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the actress’ hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered in 2018 by the FBI.
No a single was arrested in the case right up until Martin, who life close to Grand Rapids, was charged before this 12 months. Martin’s lawyer, Dane DeKrey, mentioned his customer, who is in weak health and fitness, has been cooperative with authorities.
“I believe Terry is struggling with his possess mortality and I think when folks are achieving that place in their existence, they slice by way of the pleasantries and converse turkey,” DeKrey reported in an job interview forward of Friday’s scheduled listening to.
The 1-web page indictment gave no aspects of the route that led investigators to Martin, who has a 1988 conviction for acquiring stolen products on his document and is free of charge on his very own recognizance. A great deal of the government’s proof has been included by a protective order prohibiting its public disclosure.
Garland wore many pairs of ruby slippers in the course of filming of the typical 1939 musical, but only 4 reliable pairs are identified to continue to be. The slippers were insured for $1 million but federal prosecutors put the latest industry price at about $3.5 million when they declared the indictment.
The FBI mentioned a gentleman approached the insurance provider in 2017 and stated he could support get them back again. The slippers were recovered in an FBI artwork criminal offense crew sting operation in Minneapolis. They remained in the bureau’s custody.
The plea agreement was “fulsomely negotiated” in between DeKrey and federal prosecutor Matt Greenley and would lay out the “factual basis” for his client’s responsible plea, DeKrey explained.
DeKrey expects U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief federal decide for Minnesota, to set a sentencing date all over 3 months out. He declined to say what the two sides are recommending for a sentence, but mentioned the nonbinding federal sentencing guidelines have advised 10 to 12 many years in similar circumstances.
DeKrey stated he was grateful Schiltz agreed to keep the hearing in Duluth in its place of producing Martin vacation to the Twin Metropolitan areas.
“My shopper is a sick man. He’s going to be on oxygen and he’s going to be in a wheelchair,” DeKrey explained.
The slippers in problem were being on bank loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw when someone climbed through a window and broke the display situation. 3 other pairs that Garland wore in the film are held by the Academy of Movement Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American Record and a non-public collector.
Various rewards have been presented around the years in hopes of cracking the mystery. An nameless donor from Arizona put up $1 million in 2015.
The ruby slippers have been vital props in the 1939 film. Following a mysterious landing in the vibrant Land of Oz after a tornado hits her farm in Kansas, Garland’s character, Dorothy, has to click on the heels of her slippers 3 situations and repeat “there’s no position like home” to return.
The slippers are manufactured from about a dozen distinctive supplies, including wood pulp, silk thread, gelatin, plastic and glass. Most of the ruby color will come from sequins, but the bows of the shoes include purple glass beads.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, till she was 4, when her relatives moved to Los Angeles. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969.
The Judy Garland Museum, which opened in 1975 in the property where by she lived, claims it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia.
