‘Bump-and-Rob’ Car Thief Sentenced to 10-Year Term

A 30-year-old Wilshire District man was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Tuesday for a month-long series of “bump-and-rob” crimes against women driving expensive cars.

In imposing the sentence, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler called Michael Lee Burton a “predator” who bullied vulnerable people yet avoided using a weapon, a practice that “would have resulted in a much higher sentence.”

Burton, who faced a maximum sentence of 11 years, pleaded guilty April 7 to 12 counts of grand theft auto, 11 of robbery and 1 of attempted grand theft auto.

The crime spree began Feb. 9, three days after Burton was paroled from state prison, and ended March 9 when he was captured after a high-speed chase on La Brea Avenue, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michelle R. Rosenblatt.

In the thefts, many of which occurred on Ventura Boulevard, Burton would deliberately drive into the rear of a luxury car.

When the occupant stopped to inspect the damage, Burton would get into the car, sometimes pushing the victim to the ground first, and drive away.

Of the 23 thefts, all but two of the victims were women, Rosenblatt said. One victim suffered a broken finger, but the others were merely roughed up.

The victims included actress Morgan Fairchild, whose Jaguar was stolen on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

Burton usually would use a stolen car in the next theft, abandoning it when he drove off in the new car, Rosenblatt said.

Purses and other valuables left inside the car were stolen from many of the victims, the prosecutor said.

Rosenblatt called Burton, who has three previous convictions for theft, a “con artist, a robber and a thief.”

She said Burton has never held a job and reverted to his “parasitic life style” immediately after being released Feb. 6 from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.

Deputy Public Defender Victor Steven Gerson said Burton’s lack of a firearm or other weapon indicates he “did not intend to harm the victims in any of these cases.”

But Adler said the defendant was more likely trying to avoid the harsher sentence for thefts accomplished with a weapon.

Burton, he said, “ably maneuvered his way around” the state’s sentencing rules.

Gerson also argued that, because Burton pleaded guilty, he should be sentenced to no more than eight years.

Without a break in the sentence, “You will be telling every inmate in County Jail that he will be getting nothing for pleading guilty,” Gerson said.

Adler gave no reason for shaving one year off the maximum sentence.

Burton will be eligible for parole in five years.