Paul Walker’s car wreckage thief jailed

Jameson Brooks Witty, 18, pleads guilty to grand theft of property.

Nine months after Paul Walker died in a fiery one-car accident, a teenager who stole a part of the actor’s wrecked Porsche from the crash site has been dealt a deathblow. Jameson Brooks Witty, 18, was sentenced to six months in jail on Thursday for stealing a rooftop panel of his car, soon after the Fast and Furious star was killed in the accident, reported Reuters.

Witty, who is one of the two people arrested for taking the car part, pleaded guilty this month to grand theft of property, destroying evidence and obstructing a peace officer, a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

A Los Angeles County judge on Thursday sentenced Witty to six months in county jail and three years of probation, said Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office. Anthony Edward Janow, 26, who pleaded guilty to the same charges is scheduled to be sentenced in October, prosecutors said. It is expected that he will be given the same sentence.

The untimely death of Walker in Santa Clarita, California, 48 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, forced a temporary halt to the production of the seventh instalment of the multibillion-dollar Fast and Furious film franchise.

According to IANS, the accused were caught on camera taking out parts of the Porsche Carrera GT on November 30 after the tow truck removing it from the scene stopped at the traffic signal. After witnessing the crime, the tow-truck driver reported it to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

The statement reads: “A witness saw a male exit a vehicle that was following the tow truck. The male grabbed a piece of the wrecked Porsche off the tow-truck bed. The male drove away with the stolen vehicle part.”

On the day of crash, someone using the Instagram handle ‘jamesonwitty’ posted photographs of a portion of the roof of a red Porsche and wrote, “Piece of Paul walker’s car, took it off a tow truck at a stop light.” Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrested Witty in December after searching his home.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2014.

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