By Lindsay Christenson
On Tuesday afternoon February 4, a preliminary hearing was concluded with the establishment of an arraignment date for defendant Mark Andrew Garibaldi. Garibaldi has been charged with 2 counts: count 1 is for criminal threats and count 2 is for allegations of shoplifting. These charges were enhanced due to prison priors.
The hearing began by calling the first witness, Lorenzo Vidales, to the stand. The incident involving Mr. Garibaldi occurred January 15, 2016, at 6:16 pm. At this time, Garibaldi walked into the Davis Nugget Market on East Covell and began perusing the store.
Lorenzo Vidales, the Loss Prevention Agent at Nugget, took notice of him through the closed circuit TV within the security office. Vidales noticed Garibaldi stuffing merchandise into his reusable tote bag that he had brought with him, after which he immediately left the store.
Vidales had a store associate, Jeremy Jones, waiting outside to confront Garibaldi. Vidales rushed outside, stopped the defendant, showed him his badge, and identified himself as part of the Nugget security department.
Vidales then requested that Garialdi come back inside. Garibaldi, upon confrontation, insisted that Vidales take the tote bag with the merchandise, which Vidales did and then handed it to Jones, with the contents still inside. Vidales continued to request that Garibaldi cooperate and come inside with him, to which Garibaldi refused.
Vidales then grabbed the defendant’s left wrist, in an attempt to lead him inside. Garibaldi pulled away and twisted back his right arm, and he was holding his cell phone in his right hand. Vidales asked that Garibaldi keep both his hands visible but Garibaldi again refused. Garibaldi then informed Vidales that he had a 9 millimeter gun and told Vidales to back off, speaking in what Vidales referred to as an “aggressive” and “serious” tone.
Vidales, feeling fearful and threatened, let go of his grip on Garibaldi and put his hands up, in a surrender position. Garibaldi, keeping his right arm behind his back, demanded that Jones empty the tote bag, which he did, and several razor blades and two t-shirts fell out.
Garibaldi then grabbed the empty tote bag and backed up through the parking lot, saying to Vidales, “It’s not worth your life. This is bigger than you.” He then took off running. Vidales claimed he was worried about community safety and wanted to get a better sense of what direction Garibaldi was running, in order to help the police.
So, he trailed roughly 40-60 feet behind the defendant as he ran away, ducking behind cars to remain unseen. He followed Garibaldi until he reached the nearby Carl’s Jr. where he then went inside and called 911.
After Vidales was dismissed as a witness, Officer Jeff Vignau of the Davis Police Department was called as a second witness to clarify the defendant’s statement to the police. Officer Vignau affirmed that Garibaldi has stated that he should not have stolen the razor blades and that he does it to pay the rent.
He said the defendant came to Davis to steal razor blades because Davis, unlike other places, does not keep this particular merchandise locked up. He stated that he sells the razor blades on the streets for $5 and confirmed that he did indeed have a 9 mm gun at the time. He also stated that he had just wanted the loss prevention officer to let him go during the incident.
The issue in this case was sustained fear, which the Court determined was present for count 1. The Court determined that there was sufficient evidence to hold the defendant to answer for count 1, criminal threat, and that there was strong suspicion of count 2 as well. On February 19 at 10 am Mr.Garibaldi will have his arraignment date.
Crystal Childs represented the People in the hearing and Mr. Garibaldi was represented by Deputy Public Defender Martha Sequeira.
“He then informed Vidales that he had a 9 millimeter gun and told Vidales to back off, in what Vidales referred to as an “aggressive” and “serious” tone…Garibaldi then grabbed the empty tote bag and backed up through the parking lot, saying to Vidales, “It’s not worth your life. This is bigger than you.””
All over $5? Threatening a man’s life with a gun?
What an idiot.
Ha, razor blades have gotten so expensive that armed criminals are coming to Davis to steal them because some of our stores don’t lock them up. I live near that Nugget and witnessed a parking lot take down of a shoplifter several years ago. I like it that they don’t just rollover and go after the thieves.
I don’t know why razors have become so expensive but I joined the Shave Club and now get 5 razors mailed to my house for only $3/month. Because of these new inexpensive razor mail services it will just be a matter of time and the price of razors will come down.
I also witnessed the “takedown” of a ‘shoplifter’ @ the South Davis Nugget market a few years back (am assuming the same one to which you refer)… had a darn near front-row seat… the response and violence was dis-proportional… testosterone coupled with righteousness. The culprit could easily have been detained for PD to deal with, but it went well beyond that.