P. v. Streib




Filed 4/27/11 P. v. Streib CA5



NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS


California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.





IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. MICHAEL LASZLO STREIB, Defendant and Appellant.

F059846 (Super. Ct. No. CRF30617) OPINION

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Tuolumne County. Eleanor Provost, Judge.
William I. Parks, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Catherine Chatman and Raymond L. Brosterhous II, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
-ooOoo-

Defendant Michael Laszlo Streib was charged, by first amended information, with grand theft of parts of a stamp mill from the Mount Lily Mine, the property of Mark Wolff (Pen. Code,^[1] § 487, subd. (a); count I); grand theft of parts of a mine and mine equipment from the Buchanan Mine, the property of Howard Mason (§ 487, subd. (a); count II); and grand theft of parts of a mine and mine equipment from the Starr King Mine, the property of Mark Knowles (§ 487, subd. (a); count III).^[2] A jury convicted him of count I, but acquitted him of counts II and III. Sentenced to two years in prison, he now appeals, claiming the trial court erred by having the prosecutor provide an index of exhibits to the deliberating jury. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.
FACTS^[3]
Mark Wolff, who resided near San Luis Obispo, owned the Mount Lily Mine. A former famous gold producer, the mine was located on Italian Bar Road at Five Mile Creek, five miles out of Columbia, in Tuolumne County. In 2008, the mine site contained the remains of a five-stamp mill and associated equipment such as crushers and shaker tables.^[4] Wolff had plans to restore the mill. To secure the property, he had a locked gate at Italian Bar Road and a second gate at the actual property entrance. Wolff visited the mine perhaps six times a year, and people from the Lost Dutchman's Mining Association kept an eye on things in his absence. Wolff never had any problems until metal prices went up.
Late one afternoon in early May, James Lawrence, his wife Patricia, and their son were fishing on Five Mile Creek near the Mount Lily Mine. Mr. Lawrence went upstream, while Mrs. Lawrence and their son went downstream for a while. When they were coming back upstream, Mrs. Lawrence noticed that the gate on the road to the mine was down. This was unusual, as was the noise. She thought someone was working on the stamp mill, because it was so loud. She could hear voices and banging. The noise continued the entire two to two and a half hours her family was there.
Mr. Lawrence, who was fishing near the mine, heard what sounded like a truck running and a lot of banging. He was approximately 150 to 200 yards from the source, and could see what looked to be a tow truck trying to pull something. Mr. Lawrence did not go any closer, but gradually fished back down the stream for about 45 minutes. During that time, two trucks went past him. Because he was down in a canyon, all he could see were the truck tops, but he did observe the trucks to have metal on the flatbeds.
Before Mr. Lawrence returned, Mrs. Lawrence and their son were sitting in their truck when she saw a man in a small pickup drive back and forth across the nearby bridge. She then saw a grayish tow truck come out of the road to the Mount Lily Mine. The man in the small pickup pulled in front of the gate. He and the driver of the tow truck each got out, and started talking cordially. The man in the small pickup said the tow-truck driver and his passenger were under arrest for stealing, and the man and the tow-truck driver started laughing.
The man from the tow truck had a walkie-talkie and was talking into it. The small pickup left, heading in the direction of the Lost Dutchman's Mining Association, and the tow truck parked a bit in front of Mrs. Lawrence and her son. About 15 minutes later, a flatbed truck came out. Part of the stamp mill was on it. The tow truck was pulling a flatbed that was also carrying parts of the stamp mill. The drivers of the two trucks got out, talked, and then left, heading in the direction of Columbia. The trucks were carrying thousands of pounds of metal. Mrs. Lawrence wrote down the license plate number of the tow truck. She knew something was not right, because the mine was very famous locally, and she surmised the owner would not tear down the stamp mill.
When Mr. Lawrence returned, the family drove to the Lost Dutchman's Mining Association and gave the license plate number to someone. The man in the small pickup was there, and he said he knew a couple of the men in the other trucks. The license plate number was determined to be for a tow truck registered to Guy Graham.
John Cunningham, who became caretaker for the Mount Lily Mine after this incident, had a slightly different memory of events. He arrived in the area of the mine one day in May to find a man standing at the gate. Cunningham, who was driving his Toyota, pulled in front of the gate. Nearby was a truck; a woman was standing there, looking at him. There was no vehicle associated with the man who was standing at the gate.
Cunningham got out of his car and confronted the man at the gate, who put what appeared to be a radio in his pocket. When Cunningham asked who he was and what he was doing there, the man said his name was Dennis and that he was waiting for his buddies, Guy and â€