|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
There is enough evidence to charge Jeffrey Owen Smith of East Palo Alto in the Nov. 18 street robbery of a woman in Menlo Park, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Craig Parsons ruled Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Parsons ordered Smith, 38, to be re-arraigned Dec. 30 and that a trial date to be set at that time.
Smith is charged with one count of robbery, one count of possession of stolen property and one count of possession of narcotics paraphernalia.
The victim in the Nov. 18 robbery testified in court and identified Smith as the man who tried to knock her down and then ran off with her purse while she was standing at a bus stop near Ravenswood Avenue and Middlefield Road.
Smith is also under investigation by Palo Alto detectives to see if he is connected to any of the 18 street robberies that have occurred in the city since mid-June.
“We’re still preparing files for the (Santa Clara County) district attorney to review,” police Agent Dan Ryan said.
Smith is being held in the San Mateo County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
It was an attempted street robbery in Palo Alto, also on Nov. 18, that led to a witness taking down the license number of the car Smith was allegedly driving and to his arrest two hours after the Menlo Park robbery.
Smith was pulled over by a Palo Alto officer on West Bayshore Road in East Palo Alto, who then discovered a purse under the front seat of the car Smith was driving.
The Menlo Park robbery victim was brought to where Smith had been stopped and identified the purse and its contents, including an identity card in her name, and Smith was arrested.
Menlo Park Officer James Luevano, who first responded to the scene of the Menlo Park robbery, said the robbery victim was so upset she was sick twice while he was interviewing her.
