Prosecutors will appeal a judge’s ruling that machine guns and assault rifles found in the residence of a La Crescenta man accused of breaking into actress Sandra Bullock’s home cannot be used as evidence, a deputy district attorney said today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edmund W. Clarke Jr. recently ruled that the high-powered weapons found stockpiled in Joshua James Corbett’s home were the result of a warrantless search by Los Angeles Police Department detectives.
Deputy District Attorney Scott Collins told City News Service this morning that a writ would be filed by Thursday to appeal that decision. Prosecutors will also request a stay of proceedings until the appeal is settled.
More than two dozen felony charges were filed against Corbett: one count each of stalking and first-degree burglary; eight counts of possession of a machine gun; three counts of possession of an assault weapon; 10 counts of possession of a destructive device; two counts of machine gun conversion; and one count of manufacturing an assault rifle.
If the appeals court upholds the earlier ruling, only two of the 26 charges would remain against the 41-year-old defendant — stalking and first- degree burglary.
After Clarke’s ruling was handed down, LAPD Capt. Andrew Neiman said detectives “obtained verbal consent” from Corbett before conducting the search and “acted in good faith.”
But Clarke found that Corbett was forced to give detectives permission to search his home without a search warrant, and that the defendant provided investigators with the combination to a gun safe after spending several hours in custody and repeatedly asking for a lawyer.
When Corbett was arrested at Bullock’s home on June 8, 2014, he was carrying photos of the actress and a notebook containing a letter to her, according to police testimony at his preliminary hearing.
Detectives described an arsenal of weapons they said were discovered in the defendant’s residence when the Threat Management Unit searched the converted garage he was apparently living in. However, he is not charged with having a weapon with him at the time of the pre-dawn break-in at Bullock’s West Los Angeles home.
Corbett, who is accused of climbing a fence to get onto the Oscar winner’s property about 5 a.m., would face more than 20 years in state prison if convicted as charged. He’s been in custody in lieu of $2 million bail since his arrest.
The 911 call placed by a panicked Bullock from a bedroom closet as a stranger prowled her house was played in court during the preliminary hearing.
“I’m locked in my closet,” Bullock told the police operator. “I have a safe door in my bedroom, and I’ve locked it, and I’m locked in the closet right now.”
Bullock described the intruder as wearing a “dark sweatshirt and dark pants, going up the stairs to my attic” before telling the dispatcher she heard someone “banging on the door” to her bedroom.
The police operator told the shaken actress that officers are responding “with lights and sirens.”
Minutes later, Bullock was told the stranger was in custody, but was advised not to come out of the closet in case there’s a “crossfire situation.”
Once Bullock verified that police were outside her bedroom door, she was told it was safe to come out.
