This just in from the home office in Conrad, Montana: The guy who allegedly masterminded a plot to abduct David Letterman's toddler son has copped a plea that will send him to prison.
Kelly Frank, a Montana handyman who did work on Letterman's Rocky Mountain ranch, cut a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty Monday to felony theft, "possession of an illegally taken game trophy animal," also a felony, and misdemeanor obstruction of justice.
In exchange, Teton County Attorney Joe Coble dismissed the solicitation of kidnapping charges against him.
The 43-year-old contractor now faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for the theft count, a five-year sentence for the animal charge and another six months behind bars and $500 fine for the misdemeanor obstruction count. The prison terms would run concurrently, according to Frank's Helena-based attorney, Jim Hunt.
"Kelly Frank needed to go to prison. This gets that done," Coble told reporters Monday.
District Judge Mark Buyske said he will review the case before deciding to accept the plea deal. Sentencing is slated for Sept. 13.
Frank, a full-time painter at Letterman's 2,700-acre ranch near the town of Choteau, was arrested in March after an acquaintance tipped off local police to Frank's alleged scheme to abduct Letterman's 16-month old son, Harry Joseph Letterman, and the boy's nanny to care for him while Frank held them for $5 million ransom.
In addition to the kidnapping-related charges, the local authorities corralled Frank on a felony theft charge for purportedly overcharging Letterman on a paint job and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction for lying to an FBI agent. The wildlife possession charge was just added to the list last Friday, as part of the plea agreement and accused Frank of poaching a mule deer.
Frank initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. The handyman--who previously had a 1999 conviction for stalking and intimidating a woman, who alleges he also kidnapped and raped her--has been behind bars on $650,000 bail while awaiting his trial, which had been set for July 18.
Frank and Hunt had reached a verbal agreement Friday with prosecutors to accept the plea bargain. He took the weekend to mull over the written agreement and appeared in state court Monday morning.
"We felt that from day one [that the charges were misinterpreted from] a lighthearted conversation and there was no intention on Kelly Franks' part to kidnap Letterman's child," Hunt told E! Online.
According to an affidavit filed by Coble, it was an old acquaintance who tipped off police to the alleged kid-snatching scheme. Robert Gondeiro, a childhood pal who worked with Frank at the Letterman place, claimed Frank told him he had a key to the compound, knew the location of Harry's room and hoped to sweep in once the entertainer and girlfriend Regina Lasko returned to the ranch for a visit. Gondeiro immediately alerted police, who nabbed Frank the next morning.
Frank's family and friends claimed he had been wrongly accused by Gondeiro, who trumped up the joke after a falling out with Frank.
Despite Frank's denials, he failed to sway prosecutors, in part because of a 1999 conviction for stalking and harassing an ex-girlfriend, who claimed he kidnapped and raped her after she broke off their two-year relationship. Frank spent six months behind bars and was still on probation from that case at the time of his arrest in the Letterman matter.
Letterman, who publicly thanked law-enforcement officials for protecting his family, had no immediate comment Monday regarding the plea deal.