Cologne Theft May Cost Oxnard Man 25 Years : Punishment: The jury’s verdict in Ventura County’s first ‘three strikes’ trial moves the defendant closer to getting the mandatory sentence.

In Ventura County’s first “three strikes and you’re out” trial, a jury paved the way Thursday for an Oxnard man who stole 18 bottles of cologne to receive a mandatory prison term of 25 years to life.

The verdict--which found that Roosevelt C. McCowan, 52, had two prior serious felony convictions before the cologne theft--requires Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch to impose the long prison term unless he finds a legal problem with the conviction.

Deputy Public Defender Douglas W. Daily, McCowan’s attorney, immediately asked Storch to delay sentencing so the attorney could prepare a motion challenging McCowan’s theft conviction on constitutional grounds.

The new law requires a 25-year-to-life prison sentence for anyone with at least two prior violent or serious felonies who is convicted of a third felony of any kind.

Daily will argue in his motion that stealing cologne should not have been considered a felony.

“I’m hoping that Judge Storch will be the voice of reason and sanity in all this,” Daily said.

McCowan already had been convicted of a string of felonies when he was arrested for stealing the 18 bottles of fragrance from a Sav-On drugstore in Oxnard on March 8--one day after the “three strikes” law took effect.

On Wednesday, the jury in Storch’s courtroom convicted McCowan of theft for stealing the cologne. The conviction was considered a felony because McCowan had a previous theft-related conviction in 1978.

On Thursday, the jury convened to decide the “three-strikes” charge. At issue was whether at least two of McCowan’s past convictions were of a serious nature. Under the new law, serious crimes range from burglary and arson to rape and murder.

In its verdict, the jury ruled that McCowan indeed had been convicted of two previous serious offenses--a residential burglary in 1978 and a robbery 10 years later.

Before they deliberated, jurors were not told of the severe sentence the defendant faced upon conviction.

Juror Roy Stegall said he disagreed with the idea of sending defendants convicted of nonviolent third offenses, like McCowan, to prison for such a long time.

“If I knew, I would have tried to get out of (jury service),” Stegall said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to sit through this because I don’t necessarily agree with the law.”

Stegall, an engineer, said he believes the three-strikes law should apply only to defendants accused of violent crimes.

“I feel for the man,” Stegall said. “It was not an easy thing for me to do. He’s still human.”

But Stegall said he felt he voted the correct way under the law, regardless of the implications.

Storch set a hearing Sept. 9 on Daily’s motion.

In addition to 25 years to life, Storch is required to sentence McCowan to two additional years under a law that calls for extra punishment for defendants who have already served prison time.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William G. Karr said he was pleased by the jury’s verdict.

“I’m satisfied because justice was served,” Karr said.

McCowan is one of five Ventura County defendants charged so far under the new law. Three of the others are facing trial on violent offenses, while the fifth is charged with drug offenses.

McCowan was convicted of his first felony in 1964, when he was charged with selling $25 worth of heroin to an undercover officer. In 1972, he was convicted of assault with the intent to commit murder.

Six years later, he was convicted of burglary, which prosecutors used as the first strike against him. In 1988, he was convicted of robbery, his second strike.

In the past 30 years, he has been out of prison only about five years, according to court records.

Even so, Daily said the three-strikes law goes too far.

“It saddens me to think that it has come to this,” Daily said, “to think that now people with bad backgrounds may be sentenced so harshly and spend the rest of their life in prison for criminal behavior that is essentially a misdemeanor.”

* A FULL COUNT: A judge defies the “three strikes and you’re out” law. A3