A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a conditional sentence to a Newhall woman as part of a plea deal for her theft from a Sand Canyon 7-Eleven.
Luisa Estrada, 42, pleaded no contest July 29 to one misdemeanor and one felony count of the same charge, Penal Code section 487b(3), which is theft by an employee that equals more than $950 over a 12-month period.
Judge Pamela Usher accepted the conditional plea to both counts: “If Ms. Estrada pays $6,840 in restitution and completes 10 days of community labor, the plea to (the felony count) will be vacated and she will be sentenced to 12 months summary probation as to the amended (misdemeanor count),” according to the terms of the plea bargain in court records.
She initially pleaded not guilty in May to a pair of felonies: embezzlement and grand theft charges.
Station deputies contacted the store manager in March after receiving a report that a staff member there was stealing, according to a detective’s statement in court records.
The store official noticed abnormalities during a regular audit, according to an April 1 court record.
“The manager audited transactions done by the suspect (employee) and noticed there was a large quantity of voided transactions (cancelling the transaction after completed),” according to the detective’s sworn statement about the case.
The business owner had figured out Estrada was charging additional transactions onto her cellphone using apps, according to the report.
Giving an example of the alleged theft, a $5 transaction for snacks the customer paid for would result in the suspect adding “a $160 electronic currency transfer onto the transaction, scan the account on her cellular phone (transferring the funds to her own personal account), and process the transaction as ‘cash’ to complete the purchase — shortchanging the register $160 due to the electronic currency transfer,” according to the detective’s statement in the court record.
