Winona plays the part but is still found guilty of shoplifting

Prosecution fails to make the main charge stick in case against film actress and says she should not go to jail

The actress Winona Ryder was found guilty on two out of three shoplifting charges yesterday at the climax of a seven-day trial in which the Hollywood actress was variously depicted as a woman hounded because of her celebrity and a determined thief who walked off with designer outfits worth thousands of dollars from a swanky Beverly Hills store.

Sitting close to her defence lawyer, Ryder listened impassively as the jury, after five and a half hours of deliberation over two days, returned guilty verdicts on counts of grand theft and vandalism. She was acquitted of a third charge of second-degree commercial burglary – meaning the prosecution failed to make its case that she visited the Saks Fifth Avenue department store last December with intent to steal.

She will have to wait another month for sentencing. Although the felony charges carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison, the widespread expectation was that the worst she would face would be probation, with some kind of kleptomania diversion therapy and a stiff fine.

The convictions brought an end to the latest Hollywood celebrity trial, with all the attendant hoop-la and endless dissections on the 24-hour television news stations. Ryder was not the only celebrity in the courtroom. A one-time Sony studio chief who oversaw three of her films, Peter Guber, was, astonishingly, on the jury with two other employees of the entertainment industry.

Unlike O J Simpson, who faced the far more serious charge of murder and who was widely presumed to be guilty until the jury acquitted him, Ryder cut a largely sympathetic figure thanks to her pleasing appearance and the perception that the Los Angeles district attorney's office was being unnecessarily harsh with her because of her name recognition.

Ultimately, those sympathies, both on the jury and off, were not enough to alter the facts of the case significantly. Ryder was caught on Saks' video surveillance tape stuffing expensive items into shopping bags, piling others over her arms and then walking out of the store without paying. A security guard also testified that she saw the defendant using scissors to cut off security tags in a closed dressing room, out of the reach of the cameras. The vandalism charge arose from the allegation that she had cut big holes in the fabric of numerous items, causing hundreds of dollars of damage.

According to Saks employees, Ryder offered a flurry of excuses when challenged, variously saying that she had expected her assistant to take care of the bill, that she had left her credit card account open, or that she had indeed stolen the items but was doing it to prepare for a film role.

Ryder's lawyer, a celebrity in his own right called Mark Geragos, made valiant efforts to challenge the credibility of the security guards, pointing out that they had omitted important elements of the prosecution's evidence from their initial incident reports and that they appeared to have assembled some of the most damning items days after the alleged shoplifting took place.

He produced a former Saks employee who accused the head of store security, Kenneth Evans, of boasting he was going to nail Ryder and "make enough evidence" to do so.

In the end, though, Mr Geragos failed to corroborate his claim that Ryder had an open credit account when she walked out of the store. He also made no attempt to explain away the excuses his client made when first challenged, other than to accuse the store of trying to frame her. He chose not to put Ryder on the witness stand, perhaps because of the opportunities that might have afforded the prosecution to exploit the contradictory statements cited by the security guards.

The trial became heated at times, particularly in the exchanges between Mr Geragos and Mr Evans, neither of whom was willing to concede a single fact until confronted with incontrovertible evidence of it, but was generally well run and devoid of the celebrity histrionics that were a constant feature of the O J case.

Most television reporters, far from vilifying the defendant, were content to report on the conservative outfits that she wore to court each day. One question looming over the proceedings was whether she had been unfairly singled out because of her fame. Legal analysts pointed out that no other accused shoplifter had faced quite this many felony counts in recent Los Angeles County history, citing the determination that the district attorney, Steve Cooley, showed during his election campaign to ensure celebrities did not get off easy on criminal offences.

Other analysts suggested the exposure would be good for Ryder's career, adding extra layers to a screen persona that has tended to grow out of her waif-like appearance.

STARS BEHAVING BADLY

O J SIMPSON

The former American football star, national hero and actor was charged with the 1994 murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. The jury found him not guilty.

HUGH GRANT

The star of Four Weddings and a Funeral was arrested in LA in 1995 and charged with "lewd conduct in a public place" with the prostitute Divine Brown. Fined £800 and put on probation for two years.

ROBERT DOWNEY JNR

The actor was arrested in 2001 by an LA policeman who found him walking round under the influence of a "stimulant". It cost him his part in the TV drama Ally McBeal. He had been freed from prison in 2000 for violating probation for an earlier cocaine offence.

NICK NOLTE

The actor was charged with driving under the influence of the drug GHB last month. He had earlier entered a clinic in Connecticut to receive what his publicist said was "advice and counsel".