May 15, 2018 - 1:08 AM
KEY WEST, Fla. - A trial is set to begin for one of two men accused in the 2010 theft of a Key West museum's 17th-century gold bar.
Jury selection starts Tuesday morning in the case against Jarred Alexander Goldman of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He faces a federal charge of conspiracy and theft of a major artwork.
Authorities say Goldman and Steven Johnson of Rio Linda, California, took a 74.85-ounce bar valued at $556,000 from the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Court documents allege Goldman stood guard while Johnson stole the bar from its display case.
Johnson pleaded guilty in late April and is co-operating with authorities while awaiting sentencing.
The gold bar was excavated in 1980 from a 1622 Spanish galleon wrecksite off the Florida Keys.
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Online: Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, http://www.melfisher.org
News from © The Associated Press, 2018