People v. Brand CA3

BACKGROUND

Ronda Borden was working at a Sacramento area Kmart on February 14, 1981. At around 7:00 p.m., she saw defendant pushing a cart in the housewares department that contained a color television still in its box. Borden told him to pay for the television in the appliances department, and then lost sight of him. Timothy Borem worked as a security manager at the Kmart that night. He learned that a man had pushed a television set to the outside area of the building supply department. He went outside and found the television, which sold for $418, still in its box. Although it was outside the store walls, it remained on the store’s property, in a fenced area where building supplies were kept and displayed to the public. Borem called law enforcement, and was told to “stake out” the television set. At around 2:30 a.m., a car drove around the store and parked in a nearby apartment complex. A man and a woman left the car and went to the fence’s gate. Borem heard the sound of the gate’s chain being sawed off, and at around 4:00 a.m., heard the gate slide open. Defendant pleaded guilty to second degree burglary (§ 459) and was sentenced to a two-year state prison term. In August…