Max Wade, the kid who stole Guy Fieri’s yellow Lamborghini in 2011, while he was still in high school, just had his prison sentence reduced by 10 years.
Wade had been sentenced to 21 years to life back in 2014. Of course, the lengthy sentence wasn’t on account of stealing Guy Fieri’s car, which Wade pulled off by rappelling into the car dealership and driving off with the banana yellow Gallardo with the “GUYTORO” license plate, which he had parked in a storage locker for more than a year.
Wade was actually caught after a separate 2012 incident in which he pulled his motorcycle alongside a truck with two people inside and fired five shots into it, hitting neither. He was convicted on one count of attempted murder for the incident (this writer was actually in the court the day Guy Fieri testified).
Wade, 17, fired five shots into a pickup truck that was occupied by Landon Wahlstrom of Mill Valley and Eva Dedier of Terra Linda. The teenage couple escaped with minor injuries from flying glass.
Authorities alleged that Wade, who sold fake IDs to Dedier and other teens, was infatuated with Dedier and planned the shooting after learning of her relationship with Wahlstrom. [Marin Independent]
Using surveillance footage from Golden Gate Bridge cameras, police tracked Wade’s motorcycle helmet to the store that had sold it, tracing it back to Wade, and eventually tailing him to his storage unit. Wade tried to pull a loaded handgun from his waistband before he was tackled by police. Inside the storage unit, police found the Lamborghini, along with a replica police uniform, guns, ammunition, and radio signal jammers.
At one point, two of Wade’s associates attempted to bust him out of juvenile hall with a sledgehammer before his 18th birthday. Prosecutors later alleged that Wade had planned a jewelry heist complete with a getaway via helicopter. Grand plans, to be sure, but supposedly he had the specific helicopter picked out.
This week, The Marine Independent Journal reported that a judge had reduced Wade’s prison sentence by 10 years.
The ruling came after Wade’s lawyer, Charles Dresow petitioned the court to reconsider Wade’s sentence under Senate Bill 620, which gives judges discretion on whether to add extra time for gun offenses. Gun penalties, which can increase prison sentences by up to 25 years, were mandatory before SB 620, which took effect in 2018.
Wade’s extra time for the gun offense was reduced from 20 to 10 years, and he’ll now be eligible for parole in 2025. Of course, “eligible” doesn’t mean he’ll actually be getting out, though things seem to have a way of working out for Wade thus far. Sadly, it doesn’t sound like Fieri was present for Wade’s most recent court case, robbing us of the chance for another incredible courtroom sketch like this one. In a case that’s already given us that incredible sketch and this terrible rap song, who knows what the next few years will bring?