Jury Finds Winona Ryder Guilty of Shoplifting and Vandalism

Actress Winona Ryder has been convicted by a jury on two counts in a shoplifting case.

The jury found her guilty of felony grand theft and vandalism, but acquitted her of felony commercial burglary.

The charges stem from an incident late last year where several thousand dollars worth of goods were stolen from a Saks Fifth Avenue store.

Despite the conviction, the judge has allowed Ms. Ryder to remain free on bond.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on December 6.

The potential sentence ranges from probation to three years behind bars.

Ms. Ryder, who showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read, was apprehended by security officers as she exited the Saks Fifth Avenue branch in Beverly Hills on December 12, 2001.

The officers discovered stolen merchandise totaling $5,560, including a cashmere Marc Jacobs sweater valued at $760, various Frederic Fekkai hair adornments worth approximately $600, and several pairs of socks, including an $80 cashmere pair from Donna Karan, inside shopping bags and a garment bag.

During the trial, security chief Kenneth Evans testified that he and others had monitored Ms. Ryder's actions within the store through closed-circuit cameras.

They observed her visiting different designer boutiques and entering fitting rooms with armfuls of items on two occasions.

Another security guard, Colleen Rainey, testified that she witnessed Ms. Ryder cutting sensor tags off store items while looking through the slats of a fitting room door with scissors in hand.

Assistant District Attorney Ann Rundle summarized the case in her closing statement, declaring, “She came, she stole, she left.”

In her defense, Ms. Ryder's lawyer, Mark Geragos, argued that she was being framed by Saks security officials and an aggressive district attorney's office.

He suggested that the employees planted evidence on Ms. Ryder to avoid a potential civil suit and then lied about the events.

Mr. Geragos also implied that Ms. Rainey, who left her job at the store shortly after the incident, may have tried to profit from the case by selling her story.

The defense team denied allegations that Ms. Ryder claimed she stole the items for research purposes.

They instead proposed that she mistakenly believed the Saks sales clerks were aware of her actions and would charge her accordingly.

Throughout the six-day trial, the media closely followed the proceedings due to the high-profile nature of the defendant.

Peter Guber, a former studio chief for Columbia Pictures who had collaborated with Ms. Ryder on multiple films, including “Bram Stoker's Dracula” (1992), “The Age of Innocence” (1993), and “Little Women” (1994), was also present on the jury panel.

Outside the Beverly Hills courthouse, cameras and reporters gathered daily, while Ms. Ryder arrived accompanied by her legal team, family, friends, and a publicist.