Judge Denies Max Wade’s Request to Relocate Trial, Sever Lambo Theft and Attempted Murder Charges

For the third time since San Rafael teen Max Wade was arrested on suspicion of stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s yellow Lamborghini in 2011 and attempted murder for shooting at two people in Mill Valley in 2012, a judge has denied his request to split those two incidents into separate trials.

With the now 18-year-old Wade looking more gaunt than his last court appearance while sporting a beard and slicked-back, nearly shoulder-length hair, Marin County Superior Court Judge Kelly Vieira Simmons also denied his request Thursday morning to move the trial out of Marin County.

Defense attorney Charles Dresow argued that the high-profile nature of the alleged March 8, 2011 car theft, in which Wade allegedly rappelled down from the roof of British Motor Car Distributors dealership on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, entered through a window and drove away in Fieri's $200,000 bright yellow 2008 Lamborghini Spyder Gallardo, would prejudice a jury on the attempted murder charges. The latter allegations stem from an April 13, 2012, incident in which a motorcyclist dressed in black with his face shielded by a black helmet with a dark-tinted visor drove up to a Dodge pickup on Evergreen Ave. and shot at the teen couple who sat inside.

“(Because of the Lamborghini theft allegations), the jury will not be able to sit fairly and judge (the attempted murder charges),” Dresow said.

Simmons appeared surprised by Dresow’s argument that the nature of the alleged car theft could prejudice a jury on the attempted murder charges.

“I disagree that a sophisticated burglary is particularly inflammatory just because it involves rappelling equipment and a fancy car – the other charges are attempted murder with a firearm,” Simmons said.

Prosecutor Yvette Martinez-Shaw told Simmons that severing the cases made no “judicial economic sense” because many of the same expert witnesses are relevant to both sets of charges. To spell out the ties between the cases, she said witnesses would testify about Wade’s alleged use of an iPhone to communicate with Eva Dedier, one of the two shooting victims, about the Lamborghini. Expert witnesses would also testify about Wade’s alleged use of a computer to prepare for the theft, such as finding how-to videos on YouTube about picking locks, opening car dealership key cabinets and eluding motion detectors, Martinez-Shaw said.

Martinez-Shaw said the storage locker in Richmond , was the ultimate connection between the two incidents, as it contained both the Lamborghini and the motorcycle he allegedly used in the shooting, as well as an assortment of items related to the shooting and fake IDs, local police scanner coordinates and a full San Francisco Police Department uniform with a badge and duty belt.

After Simmons denied Dresow’s request to sever the two incidents, he made his case for moving the trial, set to begin with jury selection May 16, out of Marin County. In doing so, Dresow argued that Wade’s case has been the subject of so much media coverage, much of which has “elaborated on the most salacious of the facts in this case,” that he wouldn’t be able to get a fair jury trial here.

In addition to the allegations facing Wade, the case sparked national interest when an attempted break-in at the Juvenile Hall facility in August 2012, where Wade was held at the time, was linked to the defendant. Wade was also the subject of a local rappers tribute video. The song opens with a clip from a TV news report about Wade and includes lines like, "Free Max Wade, he's my f***ing brother," "I think I'm Max Wade, not Tupac." 

Simmons denied Dresow's request, leaving the door open to using jury questionnaires as a way to determine the impact of media coverage on a potential jury. She said questionnaires made the jury selection process “surprisingly” easy in the case of James Mitchell, the heir to the San Francisco-based Mitchell Brothers pornography empire who was convicted of first degree murder of Novato resident Danielle Keller, the mother of his daughter, in July 2009.

“It’s hard to think of a case where we would grant such a request (to move the trial),” Simmons said.

Wade, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. He’s back in court on May 9 for a hearing in which the attorneys are set to ask the judge to include or exclude certain testimony and evidence. Jury selection is scheduled to begin May 16.