The American Repossessor

Randal Wright remains a free man — at least for now.

The 60-year-old former RTS Towing owner was scheduled to report Friday to the Merced County Main Jail to begin serving a six-month sentence in an auto theft/embezzlement case.

But Wright’s attorney, Tom Gillis, filed an appeal with the state’s 5th District Court of Appeals in Fresno, asking the court to reverse an earlier decision by Merced County Superior Court Judge Brian McCabe. That decision denied Wright’s motion to withdraw his no-contest plea in the auto theft/embezzlement case.

As a result, Judge McCabe last week issued a temporary stay of Wright’s six-month jail sentence — at least until the state appeals court rules whether to grant Wright’s motion to withdraw his no-contest plea.

Deputy District Attorney Steven Slocum, prosecutor in the case, said it’s unknown when the appeals court will reach a decision.

Wright was convicted in April of unlawfully taking a black Mercedes Benz G55 from a Fresno dealership in December 2008. Although Wright had been leasing the car since April 2007, prosecutors said he was behind on his payments and had returned it to the dealer. The car later went missing from the dealership, but turned up in San Felipe, Mexico, at a condo managed by Wright’s girlfriend in April 2009.

His case had been scheduled for trial last year, but he decided in August to plead no contest to felony charges of embezzlement and taking a car without consent. Despite entering those pleas, his attorney in February filed a motion to withdraw his no-contest pleas, claiming Wright misunderstood the plea, was impaired by prescription pain medication and was being pressured to enter the plea by his previous attorney.

Judge McCabe denied Wright’s motion, saying it was without legal merit. He ordered him to report to the Merced County Jail.

Wright’s wife, 50-year-old Karen Rene Wright, disappeared in San Felipe, Mexico, in early February 2009. No suspects have ever been named in Karen Wright’s disappearance, but Randal Wright remains a “person of interest” in the Merced County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation.

Two tow truck drivers who worked for his company — Steven Lincoln Lombard, 33, and Paul Armstrong, 28 — vanished Dec. 17, 1993.

No one has been named as a suspect in the men’s disappearances, which is now considered a double homicide case.

Last month, sheriff’s investigators exhumed the body of Wright’s stepson, Aaron Wright, who drowned in 1982. Investigators said they were taking a new look into the boy’s death, specifically to determine whether scientific advances not available in 1982 might reveal new clues.

Wright was never considered a suspect or charged with any crime related to the drowning. He has denied any involvement.