He stole Guy Fieri’s Lamborghini and nearly killed the girl he tried to impress with it. Now he’ll walk free

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Louise Thomas

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The teenager who rappelled down a car dealership in San Francisco and stole celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s Lamborghini, which he later used to try to impress a girl before shooting at her, has been granted parole after a decade in prison.

Max Wade, now 29, was initially set to spend 21 years to life in prison after being found guilty in 2014 of attempted murder and shooting into a vehicle containing the teenage couple, in addition to auto theft and possession of a stolen vehicle.

But on Thursday, Wade was preliminarily granted parole, which is subject to review, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Wade appeared before the state parole board on Thursday to plead his case. He reportedly said he tried to kill his romantic rival because of an online spat with the teen, who was in the same car as the girl he liked when he opened fire on them in a drive-by shooting. Wade was adamant that it was not over jealousy, which was widely reported at the time.

“I didn’t want to feel weak. I wanted to uphold the criminal image I’d tried so hard to maintain,” Wade said, adding that he no longer has “the desire to maintain the narrative of an outlaw.”

Wade reportedly said he hopes to work in cybersecurity after his release from prison — but that he’d be happy to be offered any job - including working on a CalTrans cleanup crew, he said.

After Wade’s infamous Lamborghini heist in 2011, he used Fieri’s yellow $200,000 car in an attempt to impress a 17-year-old girl, but she was not interested, detectives said at the time.

In April 2012, Wade carried out a drive-by shooting targeting the pickup truck that was being driven by the teen who was dating the girl he liked. He opened fire on the truck in Mill Valley, telling detectives at the time that he did not know his crush was in the vehicle. No one was injured.

Surveillance footage led police to Wade and his storage unit, where they found the motorcycle and revolver used in the shooting, along with cell phone and radio jammers, automatic weapons and a SFPD uniform and badge.

After years of appeals, a judge reduced Wade’s sentence by 10 years in 2021, which made him eligible for parole this year.

However, the Marin County Deputy District Attorney Cassandra Edwards objected to the parole and recommended against Wade’s early release.

“Mr. Wade is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Deputy District Attorney Cassandra Edwards said Thursday’s hearing, according to The SF Standard. “It’s challenging at best to believe that Mr. Wade is going to be in any way satiated by picking up trash along the freeway.”

Unless his parole is overturned, it will become official after the 120-day review period ends.