The man accused of stealing David Smith’s $3.1 million private jet said in court Tuesday that airport security had let him into the area where the plane’s pilot found him.
Joseph Goldman, 43, boarded the plane Friday at Martin State Airport in Middle River and turned its engine on, police wrote in charging documents. He is charged with felony theft and misdemeanor trespassing, along with entering a restricted airport area.
The 1984 Gulfstream IV belongs to Smith, who owns The Baltimore Sun and is executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a Hunt Valley-based owner of television stations, including Baltimore’s FOX45.
When Goldman appeared virtually from Baltimore County District Court in Towson for a bail review Tuesday, he asked the judge what his charges were and whether he was entitled to a hearing to establish probable cause.
“The reason I’m asking — I was told the only charge was trespassing,” Goldman said. “I was in a place where I was let in by security.”
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and speaking from the Baltimore County Detention Center on a video call, Goldman agreed to postpone his bail review until Wednesday because he did not yet have an attorney. His trial is set for Oct. 16.
“I’d really like to go home,” he told District Court Judge Michael W. Siri. “These charges are a little bit steep.”
Together, the two felony theft charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The jet was unattended with its engine off when Goldman allegedly climbed on board, a Maryland state trooper wrote in charging documents. He was the only one inside when he switched the engine on, but the aircraft’s pilot ultimately stopped him from stealing the plane, police said.
Goldman also was inside a restricted area of the airport, posted with no trespassing signs. Airport staff told police that Goldman didn’t have permission to be there and “was not a contractor assigned to any active jobs on the site,” according to charging documents. He has an “airline transport pilot license” and knows how to fly an aircraft.
Goldman served in the Army as a military police officer, according to the military and veteran networking site Rally Point. He was deployed to Iraq in 2004.
In 2017, he was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing unregistered firearms and making a firearm. Goldman had sawed off the barrel of a shotgun, made a short barreled rifle without a serial number and created a silencer for the rifle, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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