By Brandon Blanco
SACRAMENTO, CA – Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stacy Boulware Eurie heard from just two prosecution witnesses this week at Jeffery Giuffre’s preliminary hearing before ruling Giuffre should stand trial for allegedly participating in a series of catalytic converter thefts at the Sacramento International Airport.
A sheriff’s deputy at Airport Bureau testified they found multiple stolen vehicle parts in the parking lot of the Sacramento International Airport in Giuffre’s black Chevy Impala.
Deputy District Attorney Celeena Wall asked, “When you contacted the defendant, was he near or in vehicles?”
The witness stated “while we were patrolling, he was talking to someone on the phone and I asked (him) if he needed assistance. He provided an ID. He was in the middle of the aisle. Kind of pacing back and forth. It was in the middle of the parking lot.”
The deputy added, “There was a large metal object laying among other car parts in the trunk of the car. Initially, well, I didn’t recognize it. I didn’t know it to be a catalytic converter, but Deputy Porter was standing there with me. And when I asked, she said that’s a catalytic converter.”
The witness also stated that “There was parts to a vehicle that had a BMW decal… which was a muffler… a pipe that belonged to a 2018 Ford 150 that was partially broken” She stated, “Based on the amount of vehicles with already searched CSI coming out we determined at that point to take what evidence we had of the items in the vehicle and make the arrest.”
The witness stated, “Later that night, I located a truck in the Economy Parking lot that was missing a catalytic converter for a Dodge pickup truck…spoke to the owner of the truck, who said that when he took his car into a repair shop, the value of complete repair to the vehicle was over $5,000 and the catalytic converter part itself was over $3,500.
Another deputy/witness was there when Giuffre was arrested for property theft. On the way to jail after Giuffre was read the Miranda rights, the deputy said Giuffre claimed he was not the one who was stealing the catalytic converters.
After the two deputies were finished testifying, DDA Wall explained why this case should remain a felony.
“I believe that although (Giuffre) only has two felony priors in 2007, he also has misdemeanor priors in 2006…but this is felony conduct, stealing these catalytic converters especially being somewhere like the airport where people are coming home from flights coming back into town. And the cost and expense for the victims of this crime. I would ask this remain a felony.”
After hearing the witnesses, the judge set a trial readiness conference for the defendant for Dec. 8 and a trial setting conference for Dec. 13.
