Man Who Stole Plane Sentenced to Prison

A man who stole a Cessna 340 from Oxnard Airport in August and took it on a wild, one-hour flight over Ventura County was sentenced Friday to 28 months in prison.

Judge Lawrence Storch ordered Steven Michael Valenti, 30, of Oxnard to serve 16 months for plane theft and another 12 months because he was on parole from a prior felony conviction.

Valenti was convicted of misdemeanor plane theft a decade ago, prosecutors said. He was released from prison in 1989 after serving nearly a year for grand theft auto.

Valenti’s attorney, William C. Maxwell, blamed his client’s latest criminal activity on an alcohol addiction and asked that Valenti be placed in a residential treatment program instead of behind bars.

Maxwell also told the judge that Valenti was an experienced pilot who did not present a danger to the public by flying the plane.

Valenti and a second Oxnard man, Barton Dean Harvey, were arrested Aug. 27 in the Santa Clara River bottom after Valenti touched down with the stolen plane. Maxwell described it as “a good landing.”

“It may have been a poor place to land the airplane,” he conceded, “but it wasn’t dangerous.”

Charges were dropped against Harvey, 31, because he apparently did not know that the plane was stolen, Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger A. Inman said. Valenti had told Harvey that the plane belonged to his father.