7 Years For Stealing Some Cheese?

(March 3) — Mice beware.

A Woodland, Calif., man convicted of swiping a package of shredded cheese from a grocery store was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison Monday, The Sacramento Bee newspaper reports.

Prosecutors had originally asked the judge in the case for a life sentence for Robert Ferguson under the state’s controversial “three strikes” law. Ferguson, who had 13 previous convictions, was found to suffer bipolar disorder that resulted in poor impulse control, according to a psychologist’s report introduced at trial.

“We’re talking about a pack of cheese,” Monica Brushia, Ferguson’s lawyer, told Judge Thomas Warriner.

On Jan. 6, a jury convicted Ferguson of stealing a woman’s wallet at a 7-Eleven store the same day he pocketed the cheese.

Brushia pointed out that while her client had indeed been convicted of several other crimes, no weapons were used and no one was ever injured, the Bee reported.

Deputy District Attorney Clinton Parish argued that Ferguson, who has spent the better part of the last 27 years behind bars, was a career criminal.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Warriner gave Ferguson credit for 825 days served in jail as he awaited trial, making him eligible for parole in less than three years.

(Source: Sphere.com)