Tamble

STONE (S.J.), P.J.

The 1990 amendment of Penal Code section 786 does not require a defendant's waiver of the right of vicinage for prosecution in a jurisdictional territory in which a waiver was not required prior to the amendment.

The People appeal from an order of the Santa Barbara Superior Court (Santa Maria Branch) granting respondent's Penal Code section 995 motion to dismiss four counts of the pending information on jurisdictional grounds. [1] They contend that the Legislature did not intend to alter the well-settled "vicinage" provisions of Penal Code section 786 when, by its amendment of the statute in 1990, it expanded the trial court's venue for certain property crimes into "contiguous jurisdictions" on condition the defendant waive her vicinage right in such prosecutions. [2] We agree and reverse the order.

Respondent Elizabeth Anne Tamble and her codefendant Charles E. Walsh, Jr., were arrested in Santa Barbara County on September 13, 1990, and charged with various felonies arising from their possession at time of arrest of property stolen earlier in a burglary of a motor home near Hearst Castle in San Luis Obispo County and their use, in San Luis Obispo…