Winona Ryder convicted of theft
By Matt Bean, Court TV
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Court TV)
—
It was no Hollywood ending for actress Winona Ryder, who was convicted
Wednesday of grand theft and vandalism for stealing more than $5,000 of
clothes and accessories from a Beverly Hills department store. The jury
acquitted her of burglary. Ryder showed little reaction as the verdict was read, but turned and
whispered with her attorney, Mark Geragos. She will be sentenced Dec. 6 and
faces up to three years in prison for the Dec. 12, 2001, shoplifting spree at the
Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle has called Ryder's case "a simple
case of theft," telling jurors in her closing argument that Ryder "came, she
stole, she left. End of story." Geragos blamed the charges on a vast conspiracy orchestrated by Saks
senior management. Jurors, including former Sony Pictures head Peter Guber, disagreed. They
deliberated about six hours hours before rendering their verdict. Sandi Gibbons, a spokesperson for the L.A. County district attorney's
office and a witness in the trial, said outside the courthouse that the
split verdict didn't surprise her. "Generally if you find on one, you don't
find on the other," she said of the burglary and theft charges, noting that
to convict Ryder of burglary, jurors would have had to find that she went to
Saks intending to steal. Following the verdict, a throng of more than 100 media personnel gathered
on the steps of the courthouse, while a news chopper hovered overhead. The week-long trial featured testimony from a number of security guards
who detained Ryder after watching her on closed-circuit television for about
90 minutes. One of the guards, Colleen Rainey, told the court she peered
through the slats of a dressing room door to see Ryder on her knees removing
sensor tags with a pair of orange-handled scissors. Ryder's star witness, Michael Shoar, testified that Rainey's boss,
Kenneth Evans, told him he would "nail that rich Beverly Hills bitch at any
cost." But Shoar admitted on cross-examination that he had an axe to grind
with Saks and is currently engaged in a bitter legal skirmish with the
company. Other evidence the jury had to examine were the items that Ryder
allegedly shoplifted. The sweaters,
handbags, hats and other items were piled into boxes and delivered to
the jury room by court bailiffs, along with three security tags that still
bore pieces of fabric matching holes on some of the merchandise. They were also given two 90-minute videotapes that tracked Ryder's
shopping spree throughout the store. Although the tapes never showed Ryder
removing security tags, prosecutor Rundle argued that they illustrated the
actress's pattern of shoplifting: removing security tags in the privacy of
the dressing room, concealing the items, and then ditching the tags
throughout the store.
