SALON

Thursday, Nov 22, 2012 10:30 PM UTC

Man pleads no contest in burglary of Jobs’ home

By

Topics: From the Wires,

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A California man accused of breaking into Steve Jobs’ house and stealing computers and the Apple Inc. co-founder’s wallet has pleaded no contest to burglarizing homes across the San Francisco Bay area.

Kariem McFarlin accepted a plea deal and was convicted Wednesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court on eight felony counts of residential burglary and one felony count of selling stolen property.

McFarlin was initially charged in August with one count each of residential burglary and selling stolen property after Jobs’ Palo Alto home was broken into in July. He apparently didn’t realize he was in Jobs’ house until he saw a letter addressed to the Silicon Valley icon, who died in October 2011.

During the 15-hour overnight heist, McFarlin took the late Jobs’ wallet and driver’s license as well as iPhones, iPads, iPods, Mac computers, champagne and $60,000 worth of Tiffany & Co. jewelry, police said.

Investigators from a task force eventually linked the 35-year-old to seven other burglaries in Alameda, Marin and San Francisco dating back to March 2011, the San Jose Mercury News reported (http://bit.ly/TcJ30 ).

Prosecutors in those other counties agreed to resolve all of the burglary cases in Santa Clara County, said Deputy District Attorney Thomas Flattery, who filed an amended criminal complaint Wednesday.

“I think it’s a good outcome,” Flattery said about McFarlin’s no contest plea. “I think the case demonstrates a couple of things. Really, it’s a good example of judicial economy and cooperation between the various counties to resolve everything at once.

“And it’s also an example of the work a multi-jurisdictional task force can do to bring them all together.”

McFarlin could face up to seven years and eight months in prison when he’s scheduled for sentencing Jan. 17.

He could have received a maximum of 16 years and four months behind bars, but Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett offered to cap the sentence at seven years and eight months in exchange for McFarlin’s no contest plea, Flattery said.

Police previously said the Alameda resident confessed to breaking into Jobs’ home.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations