Rhune
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Winona Ryder Found Guilty
« on: Nov 6th, 2002, 2:21pm » |
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Ryder guilty of shoplifting charges
Wednesday, November 6, 2002 Posted: 3:16 PM EST (2016 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A jury Wednesday found Oscar-nominated actress Winona Ryder guilty of stealing more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue store last December.
The six-man, six-woman jury found Ryder guilty of grand theft and vandalism but not guilty of commercial burglary. The decision, announced at 2:45 p.m. ET, came after 5 1/2 hours of deliberations over two days.
The 31-year-old star of "Girl, Interrupted" faces anywhere from probation to three years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for December 6.
Ryder was arrested last December 12 as she left the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills.
Jurors had to decide whether the actress was a thrill-seeking thief as prosecutors suggested or the victim of overzealous department store security guards as the defense argued.
The case had received extensive media attention, partly because most similar cases do not go to trial. Defense attorneys claimed in the trial that prosecutors targeted Ryder because of her celebrity status.
In another development, The Associated Press reported that the California 2nd District Court of Appeal chastised Superior Court Judge Elden Fox for refusing to release the questionnaires that jurors filled out at the start of the trial.
The questionnaires focused on how much the jurors knew about the case and what opinions they had formed about the actress before they were called for jury duty.
The appeals court gave the judge time to correct the error. He was ordered to either release the information by November 7 or file a petition of opposition with the appeals court by November 11.
The court ruling came in response to an appeal filed by The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Ryder has appeared in more than two dozen other movies, including "Mr. Deeds," "Little Women," "Reality Bites" and "Edward Scissorhands."
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