3rd Strike Robbery of a fast-food restaurant
Sentence 35 years to life
3rd Strike: Theft of painting supplies
Sentence: 25 years to life
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| James Metters 3rd Strike Robbery of a fast-food restaurant Sentence 35 years to life |
| In 1994 James Metters entered a Wendy's restaurant in Oakland. After ordering food, he told the cashier to give him all the twenties. He wasn't armed, but the cashier testified that she thought his covered right hand held a gun. He left the restaurant with about $300. A police officer ordering at the drive-through window caught Metters with the cash nearby at his trial Metters said he stole the money to pay back some drug dealers. He also said that in an effort to get off the street and out of danger, he had asked police to arrest him for a parole violation. Instead, his parole officer got him on the waiting list for a halfway house. He lost his placement, however, when he was mistakenly taken to San Quentin on a parole hold. After being released, he returned to his old neighborhood to await another opening. But before he could get one, the drug dealers kidnapped and threatened to kill him and his family if they didn't get their money. They released Metters so he could get the cash, and he held up the restaurant a few hours later. Metters's prior convictions included forcing an acquaintance who allegedly owed him money to write a check in his name. A year later, when he was 19, he robbed $13 from a taxi driver. Based on these priors the Alameda District Attorney's career criminal unit charged the crime as a third strike. |
| The Prosecution: The court refused to instruct the jury to consider the alleged threats against Metters's life. That decision was initially upheld by the First District Court of Appeal, which agreed that even if the drug dealers were threatening Metters, he didn't have to commit the crime. Instead, he could have borrowed money from his family, relocated them, or called the police. As a result, his defense of necessity didn't apply. People v Metters (1998) 72 Cal Rptr 2d 294.At trial, however, one juror refused to convict Metters because she thought the defendant's "purpose for committing the alleged crime" should be considered. This led to a jury deadlock, and the case was moved to a different court. The new judge ultimately dismissed the juror, and Metters was convicted. (The validity of the juror's dismissal is currently on appeal to the state Supreme Court. Review gr (June 10, 1998) No. 5069442.) The trial judge also refused to use the sentencing discretion available through Romero. Phil Daly, the Alameda deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, says Metters got what he deserved. This, he points out, was the defendant's third violent offense in a short span of time. "Metters had a long criminal history and an inability to complete parole' says Daly Though there was no real gun, he adds, it's not right to consider this case nonviolent. "This is exactly the type of case three strikes envisioned," says Daly "It's a violent crime when the threat of force or fear exists and in this case it did." |
| Roney Nunes 3rd Strike: Theft of painting supplies Sentence: 25 years to life |
| Just before closing time on March 12, 1995, 69-year-old Roney Nunes set off the alarm as he tried to leave a Santa Clara County Home Depot store with $114 worth of merchandise. He told a store employee that his pacemaker was the cause and went back in. A guard followed Nunes and saw him remove the sensor tags from merchandise and hide the goods under his sweater. The guard stopped him outside the store and told Nunes he was under arrest. After a scuffle the guard managed to handcuff him. The court refused the defense's request to treat the crime as a misdemeanor, saying Nunes's criminal record was too extensive for leniency The fact that the defendant was 70 at the tune of his sentencing and had a heart condition didn't sway the court either. In the summer of 1995 Nunes was convicted and sent to jail for 25 years to life. His attorney says he knows of no other case where someone so old was given a third strike. Nunes appealed, arguing that the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment. But the trial court decision was upheld by the Sixth District Court of Appeal. People v Nunes, No. HO 14789 (order filed April 17, 1997). |
| The Prosecution: The lower court case was tried by now-retired Santa Clara Deputy District Attorney Tom Hanford, who had met the defendant before. In 1982 Hanford had prosecuted a rape case against Nunes and won. "Nunes saw Tom as his mortal enemy;' says David Tomkins, head of the Santa Clara District Attorney's career criminal unit. "He went crazy when he saw who was trying the case." Tomkins says that his office normally reduces petty theft with a prior. "In this case we didn't. Nor |
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