ERIE, Pennsylvania (CNN) — A woman hatched a bizarre, complicated plot to fund the murder of her father with proceeds from a bank robbery using a co-conspirator posing as a hostage, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
Marjorie Diehl Armstrong’s plot fell apart when bank robber Brian Wells, a pizza deliveryman who was drawn into the conspiracy, died when a bomb attached to his neck detonated, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said at a news conference in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Wells died August 28, 2003, after he claimed gunmen had grabbed him, locked the bomb around his neck and ordered him to rob a bank.

After the robbery, he was detained, sat on the pavement and recounted the story to police. A bomb squad was called, but the device exploded before the squad arrived. Video Watch Wells sit with the bomb around his neck »

“The brutality and utter lack of respect for life displayed by the indicted is rarely seen outside of movie screens,” said Special Agent Ray Morrow, head of the FBI office in Pittsburgh.

In federal indictments handed up Monday and released Wednesday, Wells is named as a co-conspirator in the robbery plot, along with Diehl Armstrong and her friend, Kenneth E. Barnes. They are charged with bank robbery, conspiracy and using a destructive device in commission of a violent crime.

Wells’ family scoffed at investigators’ conclusion that he was a willing participant in the plot that took his life.
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“I have not seen any evidence that suggests he knew these people in any way other than he might have delivered them a pizza the day before,” Wells’ brother, John Wells, said in a news conference minutes after the investigators.’

“Brian did not put that collar on himself,” John Wells said, his voice rising to a shout. “I’m sorry. My brother was not involved before, he wasn’t involved in the bank robbery, he wasn’t involved in the planning of the bank robbery.”

Buchanan said Diehl Armstrong solicited Barnes in July 2003 to kill her father, promising to pay him with the proceeds of a bank robbery. Diehl Armstrong also asked Barnes to teach her how to build a pipe bomb and rig it with timers, Buchanan alleged.

The suspects created the bomb and wrote a series of notes to make it look as if Brian Wells was an unwilling participant in the bank robbery, the indictment alleges. Diehl Armstrong and Barnes watched the robbery from across the street and drove away when Wells was apprehended, Buchanan said. Detonating the bomb prevented Wells from naming his co-conspirators, she said.

“We do not know the extent to which the others planned on him dying that day, but we do know, unfortunately, that Brian participated in a limited role in the planning and then in the carrying out of this robbery,” Buchanan said. “Sadly, the plans of these other individuals were much more sinister … and he died as a result.”

Diehl Armstrong is in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill in the murder of her boyfriend, James Rhoden, in August 2003. Buchanan said Diehl Armstrong killed Rhoden to keep him from exposing the bank-robbery plot.

Barnes is in jail on unrelated drug charges.

Neither Diehl Armstrong’s lawyer, public defender Thomas Patton, nor her personal attorney, Lawrence D’Ambrosio, returned calls for comment.

D’Ambrosio said Diehl-Armstrong may have been acquainted with some of the people involved in the case but did not know Wells or plan his death, the Associated Press reported.
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Morrow, the FBI agent, didn’t see it that way.

“The parties listed in the indictment sought for an illegal payday,” he said. “Nothing was off the table in attempting to reach their goal — not violence, deception or spread of fear. Greed was their inspiration. Death was just another byproduct of an evil scheme.”