An 83-year-old woman who unapologetically recounted her life as a jewel thief in a recent documentary pleaded not guilty Tuesday to stealing a diamond ring worth $22,500 from a Palm Desert store about three months after finishing her latest prison term.
Doris Marie Payne was on probation for felony theft in a Los Angeles case when she allegedly stole the 3.5-carat diamond ring - a half-carat center stone surrounded by smaller stones - on Oct. 21 from El Paseo Jewelers in the 73000 block of El Paseo, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
Payne pleaded not guilty Nov. 5 to one felony count each of grand theft and
burglary. She is due back at Indio's Larson Justice Center on Nov. 20 for a felony settlement conference and Dec. 11 for a preliminary hearing.
Defense attorney Gretchen von Helms asked that her client be released on her own recognizance and kept under supervision.
"She's elderly, her health has not been good . . . but she's never failed to be in court as requested," said von Helms, who also represented Payne in a San Diego case.
Deputy District Attorney Anne-Marie Lofthouse opposed the request, saying Payne has "absconded and been a fugitive from justice numerous times," including in Arizona and Pittsburgh.
"She has no ties to the Coachella Valley, no family or friends here . . . her criminal history dates back to 1953," said Lofthouse, adding that Payne had no history of following the law.
Riverside Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Johnson agreed and raised the defendant's bail from $45,000 to $65,000.
If convicted, Payne could face a maximum of six years in prison - three for the criminal charges and three for each prison commitment for prior offenses, Lofthouse said.
El Paseo Jewelers' general manager, Raju Mehta, said he was happy with the hearing's outcome.
"She's not going to hurt anyone else," he said.
Von Helms said outside court that Payne is "a very sweet, gentle older woman, very demure," and is compliant with judges' orders and jail staff.
Her other attorney, Guadalupe Valencia, said Payne has "always been a model prisoner."
"She does have a long criminal history, but that doesn't mean she's guilty of the crime she's been accused of . . . Right now, it's our position she's innocent," Valencia said.
Payne was arrested Oct. 29 in Pomona, where Palm Desert police with the department's Business District Team served an arrest warrant. She had reportedly been living in a Riverside motel since getting out of prison.
Payne was charged on Oct. 24 with grand theft, and prosecutors added the burglary count Nov. 5.
Her life was chronicled in "The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne," which premiered in April at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, and there has also been talk of a possible film about her.
Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Adan Yamaguchi, in a declaration in support of the arrest warrant, described the suspect's alleged mode of operation.
"Payne would typically charm the sales associate and ask to see multiple items at once, causing the sales associate to forget how many items they are showing," Yamaguchi wrote.
On Oct. 21, Payne entered El Paseo Jewelers, introduced herself as "Audrey" and was shown around a dozen necklaces, he said. She left without buying anything, returned an hour later and asked to see rings, according to Yamaguchi.
"(An employee) showed her numerous diamond rings and several very high-priced rings," Yamaguchi wrote.
She said she'd return the next day with a $12,000 cashier's check from Bank of America to purchase some pieces, and left. The next day, employees told the store's owner a ring was missing, and someone "remembered last seeing the
ring on the female's left pinkie finger," Yamaguchi wrote.
"Due to the large amount of inventory out on the display case at once and her charming personality, he must have forgotten to retrieve the ring from her before she left," the declaration stated.
Deputies identified the woman as Payne using photos from Saks Fifth Avenue in Palm Desert, where she was seen looking at jewelry on Oct. 18. Store security recognized her "from the company's run-in with Payne in 2010," when she was arrested for theft, according to Yamaguchi.
In June 2011, Payne pleaded no contest to grand theft of personal property for stealing a ring priced at $16,000 from a Santa Monica jewelry store and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
In January 2011, she was convicted of burglary and grand theft for stealing an $8,900 ring from Macy's in San Diego and was sentenced to five years in prison.
In April 2010, she pleaded guilty to grand theft for stealing a $1,300 Burberry trench coat from a Saks store in Costa Mesa and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years probation.
In July 2009, Payne was convicted of grand theft in Santa Clara County.
In 2005, she stole an $8,500 ring in Nevada. She was convicted in 1999 of stealing a ring from a Neiman Marcus store in Denver and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
"The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne" shows how "a poor, single, African-American mother from segregated 1930s America winds up as one of the world's most notorious and successful jewel thieves," according to the documentary's website.
Payne "is as unapologetic today about the $2 million in jewels she's stolen over a 60-year career as she was the day she stole her first carat," according to the makers of the documentary.
In the documentary, Payne says her "methodology of stealing jewelry took me all over the world . . . New York, Milan, Paris Rome, London."
The West Virginia native was young when she started developing her theft technique, telling an Associated Press reporter in 2005 that she would go into jewelry stores as a teenager and ask to see a wide variety of merchandise - eventually causing the clerk to forget how many items she was being shown.
She said she put her technique into action in her early 20s, stealing a $22,000 diamond from a Pittsburgh jewelry store and pawning it for a fraction of that amount. Eventually, she began dressing up in fancy clothes, putting sales clerks at ease by posing as a well-to-do customer.
Reported by City News Service in Indio
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