1-year jail time in high-profile Sonoma burglary

<p>A 30-year-old woman who pleaded no contest with her boyfriend to burglarizing the home of a Sonoma Valley family killed in a car crash was sentenced Wednesday to a year in the county jail.</p><p>Amber True of Redwood City also received five years' probation for the Nov. 30 break-in at the home of John and Susan Maloney, who died along with their children, Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5, when they were struck by a teen motorist on Highway 37 three days earlier.</p><p>Judge Arthur Wick rejected a plea from prosecutors for a six-year state prison term, saying there was no evidence True and boyfriend Michael Gutierrez, 27, knew why the house was empty before they crept in through a doggy door.</p><p>Wick also cited True's relative youth and lack of a significant criminal record in his decision.</p><p>“What I cannot do is penalize this defendant for what happened up on Highway 37,” Wick said. “I don't think a prison commitment is warranted.”</p><p>Earlier this month, Wicked handed down an eight-year prison sentence for Guitierrez, a longtime drug user with a criminal record that dates back more than half his lifetime. Gutierrez was charged with committing the burglary while on probation for another felony.</p><p>He had pending cases in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.</p><p>On Wednesday, True's lawyer, Steve Weiss, said there was evidence that Gutierrez was the instigator of the burglary. An unspecified third party told Gutierrez that the Maloney's house might be empty but there was nothing to suggest anyone knew the circumstances, he said.</p><p>With True sitting by his side, he argued against prison, saying True had made progress in getting off methamphetamine and was enrolled in an Auburn residential treatment facility.</p><p>Prosecutor Mike Li argued her recent sobriety should not be a factor in determining a sentence for the crime, which he said caused a great hardship for surviving family members. </p><p>Also, he questioned how True and Gutierrez could not have seen memorial bouquets and cards scattered around the house. Li said “it was highly improbable that they did not know something was amiss.”</p><p>With credit for time already served and under California's two-thirds sentencing law, True could be out of jail in about seven months. She was free on bail and begins her sentence next month.</p>