Jun 15, 2006 5:56 am US/Mountain
Man Pleads Guilty In Lopez-Anthony Case
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony (File)
AP
One of two men who allegedly tried to sell Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez's stolen wedding video back to the couple for $1 million pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempted grand larceny.
Tito Moses, 31, admitted in Manhattan's state Supreme Court that he tried to get a $1 million ransom for the stolen video. He said he and an accomplice negotiated with a man they thought was a Lopez-Anthony representative.
The "representative" was in fact an undercover detective, prosecutors said.
Justice Bonnie Wittner promised Moses 1 1/2 to three years in prison for his guilty plea. She said she will impose the sentence after he is sentenced in a related New Jersey case and that the terms will run concurrently.
A video copy of the celebrity couple's June 2004 wedding was in a laptop computer in Anthony's Cadillac Escalade when it was stolen in Linden, N.J., in October 2005. The car was recovered in Newark but the laptop was gone. The pending New Jersey case is related to the car theft.
A felony complaint filed by prosecutors said Moses and his alleged accomplice, Steven Wortman, 49, called Anthony's company and tried to sell the property back to the salsa star.
A New York City detective posing as a Lopez-Anthony associate negotiated with Moses and Wortman and the men demanded $1 million for the laptop, the complaint said.
At one point, the complaint said, the detective rejected the $1 million demand and Wortman threatened to destroy the laptop and its contents, the complaint said.
The detective, negotiating later with Moses, got the price down to $250,000, and the defendant agreed to meet him at a diner to give him the laptop, the complaint said. Police arrested the two men there.
Wortman has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, and his case is pending.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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