Newspaper Ad Frees Woman Tried for Theft

A woman who faced up to six years in prison on a theft charge was free Thursday, thanks to a juror who knew that strawberries didn’t sell for 69 cents a pound last Thanksgiving.

Three hours into deliberations, the woman noticed that a crucial prosecution evidence photo, supposedly taken Nov. 22, showed a newspaper with an ad for strawberries that had run just before the trial began May 11.

When the jury asked for a magnifying glass to examine the photo, prosecutors and defense attorneys quickly conducted their own study.

“Chills went up and down our spines when we realized that you could see ‘Mother’s Day’ in the ad,” said defense attorney Theresa Marks. “The district attorney turns five shades of pale. He runs upstairs and gets his orders, comes down, and dismisses the case.”

Contra Costa Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg Scott said Thursday the photo was under investigation by his department, and he could not comment further.

Wilma Baxter was arrested for felony petty theft Nov. 22, 1994, at a Raleys grocery store in San Pablo. She failed to pay before walking out of the store with a shopping cart holding six bottles of liquor, worth $86.

The defense didn’t deny that Baxter took the liquor. But they said she was so dazed after a two-week drinking binge after her mother’s death that she didn’t know what she was doing.

The police report failed to mention any photos taken by Raleys security guards, and prosecutors never raised the issue during preliminary hearings, Marks said.

Then, on the day of the trial, Scott produced a belatedly discovered photo showing a shopping cart containing bottles of scotch, gin and brandy--but covered by a newspaper.

The photo was brought to prosecutors by Michael Quinn, a former Raleys security guard.

Covering up the bottles showed Baxter had specific intent to steal the liquor and was not in an alcoholic daze, prosecutors charged.

A woman juror spotted something amiss.

The newspaper covering the bottles had an ad for strawberries at 69 cents a pound--an unlikely price in November. As she looked at the ad, she realized she had seen it on May 10, the day before the trial started.

Michael Teel, chief operating officer for Raleys, said a preliminary examination indicated that Quinn had simply picked up the wrong evidence package from the store’s security vault the day before the trial. The evidence package apparently had a photo of a similar shopping cart and similar liquor bottles.

“I don’t see it as an amazing coincidence,” Teel said, adding that liquor shoplifting is common. “I don’t know how it happened. It was unfortunate that the wrong evidence was submitted. It was not submitted intentionally.”