Lesser charges sought in infamous burglary

<p>Defense lawyers laid the groundwork Thursday for lesser charges against a San Mateo couple accused of ransacking the home of a Sonoma Valley family of four that had been killed in a car accident.</p><p>John Maloney and his wife, Susan, were killed Nov. 28, along with their children Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5. Their house was broken into three days later.</p><p>In a preliminary hearing, lawyers for Michael Gutierrez, 26, and Amber True, 29, argued that because the looted Briar Creek Drive house was no longer inhabited, their clients can't be charged with first-degree burglary. The distinction would shave years off any sentence if they are convicted.</p><p>The surviving 19-year-old daughter of John Maloney does not count as an occupant because she was attending college in Wisconsin and wasn't recently living there, said Gutierrez's attorney, Karen Silver.</p><p>Silver said investigators who inventoried the house after the burglary failed to turn up any items that would prove the young woman inhabited the house. Before she went away to school, she lived in Marin County with her biological mother, Silver said.</p><p>"You're going to hear the evidence was very thin as to Molly Maloney living in the residence," Silver told Judge Arthur Wick.</p><p>Both defendants are charged with four criminal counts including burglary, vandalism, car theft and possession of stolen property. Gutierrez, an ex-convict, faces a prison sentence of up to 11 years and eight months if convicted. True could go to prison for up to six years.</p><p>A reduction of one charge to second-degree burglary could knock three years off each sentence and eliminate the possibility of a strike count under the three-strikes law.</p><p>Each has pleaded not guilty but acknowledges a role in the theft. Through their lawyers, they said they were not aware the family had been killed three days earlier at Lakeville and Highway 37 and are remorseful.</p><p>Prosecutor Michael Li said he believes they targeted the house after hearing about the crash in news reports. Both traveled from the peninsula, more than 60 miles away, at a time when the tragedy was reported on TV and in several Bay Area newspapers.</p><p>Also, Li said items recovered from True's home make it clear Molly Maloney lived in the Sonoma house with her father and stepmother.</p><p>Found stuffed inside a sofa at True's house was the young woman's birth certificate and Social Security card, along with other official documents belonging to the parents, testified Detective Tony King of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office.</p><p>King said Molly Maloney appeared "crushed" during an interview at the house after the burglary. She told him she had come a day earlier to handle the estate at the advice of the family's lawyer. She returned to find the house had been looted, King said.</p><p>Another family member told detectives he had moved more than 20 floral bouquets and cards from well-wishers into the house the night before the burglary, King said.</p><p>Prosecutors contend the defendants must have known the family had been killed. Li said both face pending residential burglary charges in a separate case in Santa Clara County.</p><p>The preliminary hearing continues Monday.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@press</p><p>democrat.com.</p>