Crime in America - Shoplifting Cheese

[Don't Blink]

Woodland cheese shoplifter gets 7 years 8 months in prison

A Yolo County judge on Monday sentenced a man who walked out of a store with a package of cheese in his trousers to seven years and eight months in prison.

Prosecutors had originally sought a life sentence for Robert Ferguson under the state's "three strikes" law.

At Monday's hearing, Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish urged Judge Thomas Warriner to consider at least one of Ferguson's prior strikes – one for burglary and another for assault with a deadly weapon.

Defense lawyer Monica Brushia told the judge that Ferguson's burglary convictions occurred 30 years ago. His misdemeanor assault conviction was for throwing a soda can at one of his siblings when he was a teen, she said.

Judge Warriner chose a middle ground. He accepted a probation department recommendation to disregard the prior strikes and to sentence Ferguson to the upper term for petty theft.

The judge gave Ferguson 825 days of credit for his time in jail awaiting trial and said Ferguson would be required to serve half his sentence in prison. He will be eligible for parole in less than three years.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/02/257516 ... -gets.html

[cerina]

No wonder the US has the highest prison population in the world.

[Don't Blink]

Not that he was a model citizen but stealing food costing less than 5 dollars shouldn't merit 8 years in jail

[mugley]

world gone mad eh