People v. Hurd CA6

I. BACKGROUND

The charges against defendant arose from two incidents in September and October of 2018. As defendant does not challenge his convictions on counts 1 through 3, our factual summary is limited to the October 2018 incident on which counts 4 and 5 are based. A pickup truck with copper wire in its bed was stolen from a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) facility in Santa Cruz and was found about a mile away from the facility with its engine running. Its ignition had been “jimmied” or “punched out.” Surveillance video showed two people entering the facility and leaving with the truck. Defendant was later identified as one of the people who stole the truck. On the same day, a PG&E employee inspected the warehouse where copper wire was stored and found that a significant amount was missing. Another PG&E employee testified over defense objection that the value of the missing wire was approximately $11,000. The employee arrived at that amount using her personal knowledge of the warehouse’s inventory and information from a computer database that contained unit prices for various commodities. She did not know how the database was maintained or where the pricing information came…