Marin Detective: Accused Teen Lamborghini Thief Armed During Arrest
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) - A police inspector testified in Marin County Superior Court Thursday afternoon about the theft of celebrity chef Guy Fieri's $200,000 Lamborghini from an auto dealership in San Francisco in March 2011.
The testimony was part of the preliminary hearing for 18-year-old Max Wade, of San Rafael, who has been charged with the auto theft and the attempted murder of two teens in a shooting in Mill Valley in April.
The bright-yellow Lamborghini was stolen early the morning of March 8, 2011, from the British Motor Car Distributors building on Van Ness Avenue.
San Francisco police Inspector Matthew Hanley said the thief climbed down a rope attached to the roof of the two-story building at 999 Van Ness Ave. and entered through an open window on the second floor.
The thief's entry did not trigger motion sensors inside the building, nor along the outside perimeter, Hanley said. The building's alarm system was not activated until employees entered at 6 a.m.
A video showed a suspect who is less than 6 feet tall and weighs less than 200 pounds, Hanley said. The thief's face was not visible, but it appeared his skin was white or tan. He was wearing what appeared to be climbing equipment, and was inside the building for between 15 and 20 minutes.
The thief left the building in the car at 4:48 a.m. by cutting a lock on a roll-up gate facing Olive Street, Hanley said. A rope and bolt cutters were left at the scene.
A janitor was working at the time of the theft, but there was no contact between the janitor and the thief on the video, Hanley said.
Hanley said Tiburon police later informed him that the Lamborghini had entered that town at 5:03 a.m., or about 15 minutes after it left the auto dealership. It was captured again by town surveillance cameras leaving Tiburon with different license plates, Hanley testified. He did not say what time the vehicle left.
Tiburon has surveillance cameras at both ends of town, he explained.
"Everyone in Marin County knew about it," he said of the Lamborghini theft. "It was in the papers. Anyone driving it would be caught."
When asked by defense attorney Charles Dresow if he would "opine" whether the theft was a one-person job, Hanley said he would not.
Earlier on Tuesday, Marin County sheriff's Detective Ryan Petersen testified about the day of Wade's arrest at a storage facility in Richmond where he had allegedly been keeping the Lamborghini.
Petersen said detectives were conducting surveillance on the storage locker and were waiting for him when he exited the facility around 7 p.m. on April 28.
Wade was waiting for a ride on Parr Boulevard when detectives approached him in their patrol car.
When he saw the detectives, Wade fled, grabbing his waistband as he backed up and then ran, Petersen testified.
Petersen said he and another detective blocked Wade's path in their car. Wade fell to the ground when a detective kicked him in the ribs, and was handcuffed after a struggle.
"He was flailing his arms back and forth. He was actively fighting us," Petersen said.
Petersen said he struck Wade twice in the pelvis with a closed fist.
Detectives recovered a loaded Glock handgun with a magazine containing at least one bullet, and found three more magazines in Wade's pockets, Petersen said.
Wade is charged with the attempted murder of Landon Wahlstrom, 19, and Eva Dedier, 18, both of Mill Valley, as they sat in Wahlstrom's Dodge truck on Evergreen Avenue in unincorporated Mill Valley on April 13.
On Tuesday, Wahlstrom and Dedier testified that a motorcyclist dressed in black pulled up alongside the truck, looked briefly inside then fired five or six shots into the driver's-side window. Neither victim was struck by bullets, but both were cut by the flying glass.
The prosecution's theory is that Wade shot at the couple because Dedier had spurned his advances.
Petersen also testified that Andrew Lettieri, an 18-year-old friend of Wade at Redwood High School, said Wade told him two months before the shootings that Wahlstrom had his girlfriend and that he intended to fight him, or had already fought him.
Lettieri wasn't sure whether the fight had already taken place, Petersen testified.
Petersen testified that Wade told Lettieri he stole Fieri's Lamborghini and that Lettieri said other Redwood High School students were also aware of that.
Detectives investigating the shooting identified Wade as a suspect and worked with Dedier to set up a meeting with him at the Safeway store in Strawberry, Petersen testified. On the day of his arrest, detectives were watching as he arrived at the Safeway in the Lamborghini, then drove back across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to the storage facility, where he was taken into custody.
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