Crime & Safety

Judge Delays Max Wade's Trial on Attempted Murder, Celebrity Hot Rod Theft Charges

Defense attorney argues that he's only been able to view a fraction of the 15,000 pages of data investigators seized from teen's cellphone.

After three unsuccessful attempts by San Rafael teen Max Wade to split his charges of stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s yellow Lamborghini in 2011 and attempted murder for shooting at two people in Mill Valley in 2012 into two separate trials, his defense attorney has successfully requested to have the trial delayed four months from its scheduled start next month.

Charles Dresow, defense attorney for the 18-year-old Wade, said he needed more time to digest 15,000 pages of new material released recently by the district attorney's office, according to the Marin Independent Journal. The material is a summary of 44 gigabytes of data investigators took from Wade's cellphone, the IJ reported, with Dresow saying he has only been able to read 4,000 pages of material so far. A glitch has prevented attorneys on both sides of the case to access some of the data, which include "pictures, videos, emails, social media downloads, web browser data, call logs, and various forms of electronic chats," he said.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Kelly Vieira Simmons agreed to push the trial until September. She had previously denied Dresow's request to split the charges into two trials 

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Dresow claimed that the sensational nature of the car theft, in which Wade allegedly rappelled down from the roof of British Motor Car Distributors dealership on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, entered through a window and drove away in Fieri's $200,000 bright yellow 2008 Lamborghini Spyder Gallardo, would prejudice a jury on the attempted murder charges.

The latter allegations stem from an April 13, 2012, incident in which a motorcyclist dressed in black with his face shielded by a black helmet with a dark-tinted visor drove up to a Dodge pickup on Evergreen Ave. and shot at the teen couple who sat inside.

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Simmons also has denied Dresow's request to move the trial out of Marin County. Dresow had argued that Wade’s case has been the subject of so much media coverage, much of which has “elaborated on the most salacious of the facts in this case,” that he wouldn’t be able to get a fair jury trial here.

In addition to the allegations facing Wade, the case sparked national interest when an attempted break-in at the Juvenile Hall facility in August 2012, where Wade was held at the time, was linked to the defendant. Wade was also the subject of a local rappers tribute video. The song opens with a clip from a TV news report about Wade and includes lines like, "Free Max Wade, he's my f***ing brother," "I think I'm Max Wade, not Tupac." 

Wade remains in custody at Marin County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail. He has been charged as an adult.


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