Teen Lamborghini thief jailed for shooting ex-lover

Attempted murder and an elaborate heist of a Lamborghini owned by celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

All this the handiwork of a teenager.

Max Wade, 19, from northern California, was sentenced to life plus 21 years in jail on Thursday for these crimes. He tried to kill his former lover and her boyfriend by shooting into a truck they were travelling in.

Wade was 17 when he was arrested for the drive-by shooting north of San Francisco.

He allegedly sped off on a motorcycle after firing shots at the teen couple, who were uninjured in the attack.

While investigating the shooting, authorities linked him to an unsolved car theft the year before. Witnesses reported seeing a man rappel from the roof of a San Francisco car dealership and race off in a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder owned by Fieri, the goateed, spiky-haired Food Network restaurateur.

Cameras captured the canary yellow convertible crossing the Golden Gate Bridge days later.

The sports car, estimated to cost about US$200,000 (S$255,000), was discovered in a storage shed, along with Wade's getaway motorcycle.

Police said they staked out the storage space and arrested Wade when he showed up to retrieve his belongings. He was taken into custody in May 2012.

On his 18th birthday, someone unsuccessfully tried to free him from a juvenile detention centre by smashing his cell window from the outside. He was immediately transferred to county jail after the break-out attempt.

A search of the grounds around the juvenile hall turned up a backpack with a change of clothes, a sledgehammer and a bolt cutter, which authorities believe was used to slice through two perimeter fences.

Judge Kelly Simmons, who presided over the jury trial, said of the sentence: ("Wade) deserves it".

"The crime was very, serious," San Francisco Chronicle quoted the judge as saying. "This is not a spur-of-the-moment loss of temper. This is a planned act."

The life term came with a 20-year sentencing enhancement for use of a firearm in committing a premeditated attempted murder.

He also received a separate 16-month sentence for stealing the sports car, the teenager's lawyer Charles Dresow told Reuters. The sentencing comes with a possibility of parole

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