Traster
People v. Traster
Opinion
Opinion
Johnson, J.
Appellant, Kevin D. Traster, represented himself at trial. A jury found him guilty of two counts of grand theft by false pretenses. We will modify the judgment of conviction to reflect instead one count of grand theft by trick and one count of attempted grand theft by trick. Finding no other prejudicial error, we affirm as modified and remand for resentencing.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW
Count II—Alleged Theft at the Law Firm of Demler, Armstrong and Rowland:
Appellant had a computer consulting business he called Pen, Paper, Mouse Ink. In July 1997 the Long Beach law firm of Demler, Armstrong and Rowland hired appellant as its first computer administrator. His initial duties included converting the firm from the word processing system WordPerfect 5.1 to Windows and Microsoft Word. His responsibilities also included training on Microsoft Word as well as assisting the 35 attorneys and 35 staff persons with computer problems.
In April 1999, appellant met with Susan Stevens, the law firm’s administrator. He informed her the law firm was not in legal compliance because it. did not have Microsoft licenses for all its computers. Appellant explained he had done some research…