Lucinda Moyers Trial: Alex Trebek Burglar Says She's A Prostitute, Not A Robber

Lucinda Moyers, the 56-year-old woman accused of robbing Alex Trebek's hotel room at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis last month, has pleaded not guilty to burglary, alleging that she was working as a prostitute at the hotel, SF Weekly reported.

According to Moyers' attorney, deputy public defender Mark Jacobs, Trebek never actually saw Moyers in the hotel room, but found her in the hall after he had been robbed. Jacobs claims that Moyers had visited a client and was waiting for an elevator when Trebek approached her in the hallway and accused her of stealing. Fearing a confrontation with security, she then fled from Trebek.

"She said she was up there working as a prostitute," said Jacobs. "So she didn't want hotel security involved in her business."

This distinction is important because if Moyers is convicted of felony burglary, she will fall under California's three strikes law and could face a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Prostitution is a misdemeanor and thus would not qualify her for a third strike.

Moyers was convicted once in 1990 of burglarizing a Fisherman's Wharf hotel room and again in 1991 for an incident at a hotel downtown. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Moyers revealed that she had been convicted on another felony for burglarizing a Holiday Inn room in 1997, but that it had not counted as a strike against her. Her lawyer was unaware of the incident before the interview.

In the same interview, a tearful Moyers explained to the Chronicle, "I'm not saying I shouldn't do any time when I do stuff. I already did the time," she said, referring to a four-year prison stint after the 1991 incident. "But to do life? For stealing? And I didn't even do anything this time. They're going to give me life for my record."