People v. Pater

Defendant was convicted by a jury of (1) grand theft—auto (Pen. Code, § 487, subd. 3), and on a separate count of (2) taking or driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent (Veh. Code, § 10851). He was sentenced on both counts.

On June 12, 1967, defendant, an unemployed parolee, was arrested while driving a 1967 Ford Mustang, which had been stolen from the lot of a Sacramento Ford dealer sometime during the night of June 7-8. That automobile, when defendant was arrested, carried license plates and a registration certificate which had been removed and stolen several days earlier from another…