New Times / News

Jeweler sentenced to 10 days

BY MATT FOUNTAIN

A salesman at the San Luis Obispo jewelry store All That Glitters was sentenced to 10 days in jail for delaying officers investigating his business on suspicion it was receiving stolen property.

William McBurney, 57, was sentenced for the misdemeanor charge on Feb. 14 in SLO County Superior Court, roughly a week after 12 jurors acquitted him of two weightier felony counts of buying stolen jewelry.

McBurney’s sentence also carries with it two years of informal probation and a $1,000 fine. He had faced a maximum sentence of one year in jail.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Karen Gray alleged that McBurney wasn’t forthcoming to detectives who contacted him looking for a stolen diamond ring worth more than $20,000 and a sapphire worth about $3,000.

During the trial, Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy dismissed two misdemeanor charges of buying second-hand jewelry without a license. McBurney’s attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu established that McBurney—as an employee of the business, not owner—wasn’t responsible for obtaining the license.

The store’s owner, Travis McBurney, McBurney’s son, subsequently obtained the license two months after the search of the business.

Prior to sentencing, Duffy rejected a motion submitted by Funke-Bilu for a new trial.

McBurney is scheduled to begin his sentence on March 27 at the SLO County Jail.