Kirsten Dunst's Clutch Thief Lands in the Clink

Man convicted of lifting actress' bag in 2007 hotel heist gets sentenced to state prison

By Gina Serpe Sep 07, 2010 7:05 PMTags
Kirsten DunstDimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com

Not every burglar comes equipped with a scapegoat-ready bunch.

Which is why all fingers involved in Kirsten Dunst's hotel room purse snatching wound up pointed at James Jimenez, who this morning was sentenced to four years in state prison.

A jury convicted Jimenez back in June of the June 2007 indiscretion. While he maintains his innocence, 12 of his peers disagreed, finding him guilty of lifting the actress' $2,000 Balenciaga bag from her SoHo Grand suite, along with the cell phone of her How to Lose Friends and Alienate People then-costar Simon Pegg, and assorted other personal (and pricey) possessions.

As it happens, the 36-year-old had leniency on his side in the courtroom this morning, as the Manhattan District Attorney's office was pushing for a whopping seven-and-a-half years behind bars. The minimum he could have faced is three-and-a-half.

Which makes his four very lucky indeed. Not that he saw it that way.

"I don't understand the charges," he told the judge. "I don't understand why I'm being charged."

That made…well, just one of them.

"I understand, because I presided over this trial and I'm familiar with all the evidence," Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Jill Konviser replied.

Incidentally, the four years Jimenez got for fighting the case is the same amount of time his accomplice, Jarrod Beinerman, was sentenced to back in 2008 for copping to an attempted burglary charge.

Just think of how much time he could have saved.

Check out more crimes of fashion in our Fashion Police roundup!