Dimitri Storm Pleads Not Guilty; World Rolls Eyes

Fugitive and alleged serial car thief Dimitri Storm pleaded not guilty to nine charges in Oakland Monday in connection with attempted auto burglaries in Berkeley last week, according to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

Storm wreaked havoc on much of Central California for the entirety of April, but the majority of his crimes occurred in Santa Cruz County. A sheriff's deputy said two weeks ago that Storm suffers from mental illness and thought he was a police officer during his crime spree.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge set a pretrial hearing on the charges against Storm for Monday and a preliminary hearing for May 24 at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, district attorney's office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said.

Storm, 43, was arraigned in court on Friday for the attempted burglaries of six cars, petty theft, resisting arrest and providing a false name to police after his arrest by Berkeley police Tuesday.

A judge on Friday ordered the defendant held in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on $610,000 bail, up from $312,000 set after his arrest, according to jail records.

Storm's prior convictions include sale of a controlled substance in Santa Cruz in 1997, first degree residential burglary and grand theft auto in Santa Barbara in 2003, willful evading and felony resisting an officer in Santa Barbara in 2004 and first degree burglary in Santa Cruz in 2005.

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