and up to a $1,000 fine. Cal. Penal Code � 490; see also Cal. Penal Code � 487 (defining grand theft as theft over $400). Because Andrade had a previous misdemeanor theft conviction in 1990, however, his shoplifting offenses were charged as two counts of petty theft with a prior, pursuant to California Penal Code � 666. Petty theft with a prior is a so-called "wobbler" offense, punishable either as a misdemeanor with up to one year in county jail or as a felony with up to three years in state prison. Cal. Penal Code � 666 ("punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison"); Cal. Penal Code � 18 (specifying sentences of "16 months, or two or three years" for any crime "punishable by imprisonment in a state prison" where no other penalty is specified by law); Terry, 54 Cal. Rptr. 2d at 770-71. Prosecutors have discretion to charge petty theft with a prior as either a misdemeanor or a felony, and the trial court has reviewable discretion to reduce this charge to a misdemeanor at the time of sentencing. People v. Superior Court (Alvarez), 928 P.2d 1171 (Cal. 1997) (holding that a trial court's discretion under Cal. Penal Code � 17(b) to reduce a"wobbler" offense is not eliminated by the Three Strikes law but is reviewable).

In Andrade's case, the prosecutor elected to charge his two petty thefts with a prior as felonies, thereby implicating the Three Strikes law. Andrade's three 1983 burglary convictions were charged as his first two strikes. His petty thefts were charged as his third and fourth strikes.

The trial court bifurcated Andrade's trial. In the first proceeding, the jury found him guilty of two counts of petty theft with a prior under California Penal Code � 666. Before the jury's verdict, the court denied Andrade's motions to reduce the charges to misdemeanors and to strike the prior convictions. In the second proceeding, the same jury found that he had been convicted of three counts of first degree residential burglary on April 26, 1983. On April 24, 1996, the court sentenced Andrade to 25 years to life for each petty theft with a

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