Trial Begins in $6-Million San Francisco Jewel Heist

A trial began Monday in this city’s record jewel heist -- a caper that netted more than $6 million in antique gems after thieves tunneled through the wall of a vacant restaurant.

Facing more than a dozen felony charges of robbery, burglary and conspiracy to commit robbery is Dino Smith, an articulate felon with a long history of high-profile San Francisco criminal cases and unusually successful appeals.

His brother, Troy Smith, remains at large, and a third suspect and childhood friend, George Turner, awaits a July trial date.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Jerry Coleman told jurors Monday that the evidence would prove that Dino Smith, 46, had conspired with Lang Antique and Estate Jewelry owner Mark Zimmelman to commit the crime, and that he was present at the armed heist. Coleman said Dino Smith was identified in a photo lineup.

Apprehended in New York City last summer, Dino Smith allegedly confessed to police that he had spent five months planning the job at the request of Zimmelman, who has not been arrested and strongly maintains his innocence.

Coleman also told jurors that a journal found later in the summer by Dino Smith’s New York roommate contains an entry alluding to one of many meetings with Zimmelman.

The thieves had access to the adjoining vacant Rumpus Restaurant, where they wired an alley door in advance for easy entry.

On the night of April 6, 2003, they tunneled through the wall in the exact place from where safes had been moved aside with Zimmelman’s knowledge one week earlier. After disabling the motion detector on a burglar alarm, they waited for store employees, who were forced to empty the safes on April 7.

Insurers valued the pieces -- which included handcrafted diamond rings, Art Deco bracelets and brooches studded with Burmese rubies and Kashmiri sapphires -- at $4.5 million. Store officials, however, have placed the retail value above $6 million, the city’s largest jewel heist by many-fold.

Found on a newspaper inside the Rumpus Restaurant and on a piece of poster board used to block the hole as the thieves laid in wait were the fingerprints of Troy Smith, 42, and George Turner, 45, who was arrested months after the heist with $650,000 of the Lang jewelry in his possession.

Dino Smith’s attorney, Jonathan Rutledge, told jurors that in contrast to that “scientific” evidence, the case against his client is based only on an eyewitness identification so weak and full of contradictions as to be “nonexistent” and a confession that Rutledge claims was fabricated by police.

“He wasn’t there,” Rutledge said. “He didn’t do it. He didn’t conspire. He never made those statements in New York.”

The Smith brothers were tried and convicted in the mid-1990s of plotting to kidnap “Dr. Winkie” -- the flamboyant owner of the then-booming nightclub DV8 -- as well as for a series of other robberies. They already had been convicted of a home invasion robbery that netted jewels belonging to the widow of a Nicaraguan drug lord with her own history of drug crimes.

Attorney misconduct in the Winkie case and police misconduct in the home invasion case led to successful appeals, abruptly truncating the brothers’ decades-long criminal sentences.

Zimmelman bought stolen goods from Dino Smith after the home invasion, then testified against the brothers at trial in exchange for reduced charges. Zimmelman has said he believes his store was targeted in retaliation for that testimony.