Facing a misdemeanor charge, Marshad Johnson, 18, heads to
pre-trial conference
Gilroy High School senior Marshad Johnson pleaded not guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of possessing burglary tools and will appear in court Thursday to explain his role in the GHS locker room thefts this winter.
Johnson was the only adult among five football players cited last December by the Gilroy Police Department for planning and partaking in the theft of about $1,700 worth of electronics, cash, shoes and clothes from the GHS soccer team’s locker room during school hours. The collective act constitutes grand theft, according to Johnson’s case file at the South County Courthouse in San Martin.
Johnson admitted to cutting cans, looking in lockers, picking the locks and taking a personal video game console from one locker, according to GPD Officer Cherie Somavia’s incident report. Johnson, who was cited Dec. 18, could not be reached for comment, but his not guilty plea attests to Somavia’s statement in her report that she “was never able to determine who actually stole items out of the lockers.”
Still, Somavia’s report reads that a coach discovered Johnson fiddling with a soccer locker Dec. 5, using an aluminum “shiv” to pry open a lock, thanks to another football player’s discovery of the burglary technique on YouTube.com. The four other juveniles in the locker room with Johnson ran away when he was caught; they subsequently exchanged, sold and returned the stolen goods at various times with other players, according to Somavia’s report.
Johnson will appear 9 a.m. in Department 92 at the South County Courthouse in San Martin.
