By PAUL FOY
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah man charged with threatening a government informant at the center of an artifact-looting case was scheduled to plead guilty Friday.
The defendant, 44-year-old Charles Denton Armstrong of Blanding, was accused of plotting to hurt the undercover artifacts dealer "real bad" by beating him with a baseball bat.
The operative set up a bust of 26 people in the Four Corners region on charges of collecting or trafficking in plundered American Indian artifacts from federal and tribal lands.
Armstrong's defense lawyer tells The Associated Press he'll plead guilty to a charge of retaliating against an informant.
Armstrong is expected to get a year in prison at sentencing. He's been held since his July 13 arrest.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
