The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County District Attorney:
Defendant Kylee Michelle Wood, age 25, of Willits, was sentenced on Wednesday, September 27th, in the Mendocino County Superior Court to 16 months in Realignment County Prison (aka the Sheriff’s Low Gap jail facility).
Defendant Wood was convicted by plea in December 2021 of felony grand theft of a value greater than $950.
In short, the defendant and an accomplice were roaming the streets of Ukiah in August 2021 getting into private mailboxes and stealing mail.
When Wood was arrested by the Ukiah Police Department, she had in her possession a paycheck sent by the County to DA Eyster that had been purloined from his home mailbox.
Wood’s male (no pun intended) accomplice eluded the police and was never caught.
Because the victim of the crime was Mendocino County’s chief law enforcement officer, the prosecution of defendant Wood has been handled by Lake County District Attorney Susan Krones by assignment made by the Attorney General.
Originally placed on supervised probation for 24 months in December 2021, the defendant failed to take advantage of the help she has been offered.
Between December 2021 and August 2023 Wood has been found in violation of the terms of her probation five separate times, the last violation occurring in August 2023.
As referred to herein, Realignment County Prisons (RCP) were created in 2011 by Assembly Bill 109 as a way to shift prison inmates and the cost of felony inmate incarceration from the state prisons to the counties.
Over 500 felony offenses were modified by the Legislature so that any defendant guilty of one of more of the 500+ is ineligible to be housed in a state prison facility and, instead, must serve his or her prison time in the local county jails.
She’s just going to do it again when she gets out…these folks never learn their lesson because it’s always a slap on the wrist…I find it interesting that she had the DA’s check in her possession…what an idiot…it also shows that anyone and everyone is fair game when it comes to crime.