Guilty plea expected from Minnesota man charged with stealing ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland

DULUTH — A 76-year-old man charged with stealing the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" is expected to change his plea to guilty next week in federal court, according to his attorney.

Terry J. Martin was indicted in May by a federal grand jury on a single count of theft of a major artwork. The slippers, on loan from a Hollywood memorabilia collector, were stolen in late August 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the actor's one-time home of Grand Rapids, Minn. They were recovered in a sting operation in Minneapolis in 2018 — though no one was publicly linked to the crime for several more years.

Martin pleaded not guilty in June and was released with conditions. A jury trial was originally scheduled to start this month.

Martin's court-appointed attorney Dane DeKrey said he couldn't reveal the specifics of the agreement — or guarantee that Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz will accept it during an Oct. 13 hearing in Duluth.

"I think there is a misconception about who Terry is and what happened in this case," said DeKrey. "[The] hearing is going to shed some light on that."

DeKrey described Martin as being in poor health, but as having a life that mirrors the movies.

"He's lived his life in an honorable way according to his own code," DeKrey said.

The slippers were one of four pairs worn by Garland in the 1939 classic movie and were insured for $1 million at the time they were stolen from a plexiglass case. An emergency exit had been tampered with the night they went missing, the museum's keepers said at the time.