By Joe Cormac and Jose Medina
SACRAMENTO, CA – After allegedly using a BB gun April 20 to steal a bicycle that belonged to his friend, defendant Harley Kinard found himself in Sacramento County Superior Court this past Thursday for a preliminary hearing before Judge James P. Arguelles.
Kinard is charged with second degree robbery and possession of methamphetamine.
Deputy District Attorney Rainey Jacobson called Officer Kenyan Olsen as the first witness, who said he was dispatched to a reported robbery, and recalled that the victim had told him that a friend he had known for many years had approached him to steal his bike that he was using it to pick up some groceries.
He identified Kinard as the friend in question. The victim told Olsen that when he tried to resist the defendant’s attempts at stealing the bike, Kinard pulled out what seemed like a gun.
The victim revealed to Olsen that the defendant pointed the “silvery black gun” at him and threatened, “Give me your bike or I’ll blow your brain out.”
Taking the threat seriously, the victim let go of the bike so that Kinard could take it.
According to Olsen, he located the bicycle less than half a mile away from the canal where Kinard lives. The victim confided to Olsen that the defendant lived in a tent by the canal that was close to the victim’s own home.
DDA Jacobson’s second witness was Det. Christopher Robertson from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office. Robertson conducted a follow up investigation on April 21, and he located the defendant near the intersection of Assembly Ct. and 55th Ave.
The defendant identified himself by name, and Det. Robertson searched and arrested the defendant. During this search, Det. Robertson found a phone and a small plastic bag on the defendant, and the bag contained 2.5 grams of a substance the detective believed to be methamphetamine.
The prosecution questioned Det. Robertson about subsequent investigations of the defendant’s tent and of surveillance footage from Allstate Tire & Wheel, the business where police found the victim’s bicycle.
Detective Robertson described how others at the defendant’s encampment directed a police deputy to the defendant’s tent, where the deputy found a notebook bearing the defendant’s name.
The deputy also found a replica handgun under the defendant’s mattress. The replica, a BB gun, matched the victim’s description of a “silvery black gun.”
The detective also described how he viewed surveillance footage at the scene, Allstate Tire & Wheel, in which he saw a man in a blue backpack pushing a bicycle.
The backpack matched the defendant’s, and the bicycle matched the victim’s report. The footage showed the man removing bags from the handlebars and walking on with them, leaving the bicycle behind.
The defendant’s counsel questioned Det. Robertson about the surveillance footage from Allstate Tire & Wheel. The witness acknowledged that the store’s employees informed him of a nine-minute time difference in the footage, but Det. Robertson was unable to verify this information due to another call that required him to leave the premises.
The defense counsel then questioned Det. Robertson on items he retrieved from the defendant. Detective Robertson said he found nothing of evidentiary value on the defendant’s cellphone.
He also said he did not test the substance in the plastic bag, instead relying on his training to identify the substance as methamphetamine. The detective cited his completion of training in 2017 and 2020 as proof of his ability to identify the substance.
During this questioning, Det. Robertson also described his attempt to view security footage from the complex where the incident occurred. He requested to view a nearby resident’s security camera footage, but the resident denied the detective entry. According to the detective, the resident claimed that parked cars obscured the camera’s view of the incident.
Judge Arguelles found reason to believe the defendant was guilty, and he said there was enough information to file this case.
The defense requested a jury trial for July 26, which the court granted.
Jose graduated from UC Davis with a BA in Political Science and has interned for the California State Legislature. He is from Rocklin, CA.
Joe is a fourth year at UC Berkeley. He hopes to become a lawyer or harmonica sessionist, whichever happens first.
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