Ancira

Juan Rodriguez Ancira appeals from a judgment of conviction for petty theft with a prior (Pen. Code, § 666). We reverse as to imposition of a one-year sentence enhancement and in all other respects affirm the judgment.

On September 21, 1982, Ancira shoplifted a chain saw from a Sears store in Mountain View. A store security guard detained him and called the police. Ancira subsequently admitted to a Mountain View police officer that he had stolen the chain saw.

A jury found Ancira guilty of petty theft with a prior, and also found to be true three allegations of prior felony convictions (all for burglary). The court sentenced him to the upper term of three years’ imprisonment for petty theft with a prior, plus two additional years for two of the priors (Pen. Code, § 667.5).

I.

In a pretrial motion Ancira asked to stipulate to the existence of a 1982 petty theft conviction as the Penal Code section 666 prior, and thereby preclude the prosecutor from introducing any evidence of prior felonies. The court ruled, however, that it would allow proof of one of the prior burglaries as the section 666 prior (the prosecutor had agreed to present proof of only one burglary). This…