Samples

In an information filed in June 2001, the San Diego District Attorney charged the defendant Kenneth Marvin Samples with commercial burglary under Penal Code [1] section 459 (count 1) and with petty theft under section 484 (count 2). The information also alleged as a strike within the meaning of sections 667, subdivisions (b) through (i), 1170.12, and 668 that Samples had been convicted in the State of Texas in February 1993 of the crime of burglary of a habitation. Samples pleaded guilty to count 1 and admitted to having pleaded guilty to the Texas burglary charge, and in exchange count 2 was dismissed. However, Samples reserved the right to argue at sentencing that the Texas conviction did not constitute a strike under California's three strikes law.

In October 2001, the court ruled that Sample's Texas conviction did not constitute a strike under California law because of what the court believed were differences between the intent elements in California's and Texas's theft statutes. Having found not true Sample's strike allegation, the court placed him on three years' formal probation, with 365 days in local custody, and ordered $400 in restitution.

In November 2001,…