Teen’s alleged theft of sports car leads to more severe charges

It can be difficult to understand how the criminal justice system works. Sometimes, prosecutors and/or judges will also take liberties when handling criminal cases, making some aspects even more confusing. In the out-of-state case of a 17-year-old who is accused of the theft of a celebrity’s sports car, the mere theft charge has escalated to more, for reasons that the defense disagrees with.

In March 2011, star chef Guy Fieri had his Lamborghini stolen. Authorities, however, didn’t officially get him for that theft until this year, when the same teen suspect allegedly fired shots into a vehicle while driving Fieri’s car. A judge has tried to justify why he is wrapping last year’s theft and the more recent shooting together in order to change the criminal charges that the teen faces.

The California teen defendant is officially charged with the following: burglary, vehicle theft, two counts of possession of stolen property, two counts of attempted murder and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle. In the judge’s opinion, the theft of the car is connected to the shooting because the defendant was trying to impress one of the alleged victims with the car at the time of the incident.

Still, the defense attorney believes that the car-related offenses should have been entirely separated from the offenses connected to this year’s shooting (which didn’t result in any serious injury). That request, along with the request that the property offenses be handled in juvenile court, was denied.

The defense won’t continue in its attempts to separate the cases and have some charges tried in juvenile court. The complexity of the charges and how they are connected will make for an interesting and, according to the attorney, long case.

Source: KTVU: “Teen pleads not guilty stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s Lamborghini,” June 20, 2012

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