State High Court Turns Away Case of 'Silverware Bandit'

by City News Service

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against a man convicted of a string of break-ins that targeted the homes of older women in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Jeffery Wayne Langford was convicted in February 2011 of 21 counts, including first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, cutting a utility line, making criminal threats, false imprisonment of an elder and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.

The charges stemmed from early morning break-ins between June 2008 and August 2008 at the homes of seven women who were between 75 and 93 years old and lived at homes in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

In all but one of the burglaries, Langford climbed through a window, confronted the victims and demanded money, jewelry or silver -- netting him the nickname "The Silverware Bandit."

During one of the crimes in West Los Angeles in June 2008, a 93-year-old woman's phone was dismantled and her medical alert monitor was disabled, according to a May 7 ruling by California's 2nd District Court of Appeal that upheld Langford's conviction.

A 79-year-old Santa Monica woman who attempted to stab Langford in the stomach with a screwdriver he had placed on her bed was choked before he released her and eventually tied her hands and legs with extension cords in August 2008, according to the ruling.

"Based on the evidence, the jury reasonably could conclude defendant was the intruder in the seven incidents for which he was convicted," Presiding Justice Tricia Bigelow wrote on behalf of the panel in the May 7 ruling.

Jurors acquitted Langford of charges involving four other women and deadlocked on charges associated with another woman.

He was sentenced in January 2012 to 210 years to life in state prison.