Facebook

Faith: “I thought she was still in the bathroom. The keys were gone.”

Ryan wore a T-shirt and jeans when he testified, he looked as if he might have come straight from his mechanic job to the courthouse on July 5.

Ryan said he paid $18,000 when he bought his 2018 Nissan Sentra from a dealership a couple years ago. Ryan has more than one car, so while he is at work he leaves his Nissan parked in front of his home in the 3800 block of San Ramon Drive in Oceanside.

Ryan’s girlfriend Faith and their son live with him, and Faith uses the Nissan to go to the grocery store or for any emergency. Otherwise, Faith is supposed to get specific permission to use it because, Ryan said, “It’s my car.”

When Faith testified, she said that last May she drove to visit an old gal pal named BriAnna Kuh. While she was at Kuh’s home, she fell asleep and then woke up to find that Kuh had given a man permission to borrow her Nissan. Faith said, “He took the car to visit someone in San Diego,” she was told. Faith’s wallet also went missing that day. Faith said she wanted to “press charges” at that time, but Kuh talked Faith and Ryan out of it.

The Nissan was recovered the next day. It had new damage to the hood and the wheel rims and there were dents in the passenger door.

Ryan’s response was to purchase a tracker from Amazon. He installed this tracker himself on his Nissan, and “It worked great. It tells me exactly where my car is at.” He was pleased about the new technology. “You just download the app, and then there is a monthly fee for it.”

So Ryan was prepared when his Nissan was stolen again in June, “I called the cops and led them right to it.” Ryan said he stayed on the phone and spoke with cops while his car was traveling. The cops found it within minutes, about thirteen miles east from his home in Oceanside.

Faith testified about the second time she saw her old friend when suddenly the Nissan was gone again.

Her old friend BriAnna Kuh appeared on her doorstep on Tuesday night, June 13, before 9 pm.

“Days before she was trying to contact me, saying ‘You are not being a friend.’” Faith admitted it was true, she was trying to avoid her former friend, and Kuh was asking to borrow the Nissan. Faith described their relationship as “Not very close. I stopped hanging out with her 'cause it was causing problems in my relationship.”

“We used to be friends a few years ago,” Faith said she met BriAnna Kuh in 2016. “Then we stopped hanging out for some time, in 2019. But then we just started in 2022 hanging out again.”

But that Tuesday night last June, “They came over unannounced.” Kuh came with her current boyfriend.

“I was at home hanging out with my son. The dogs were going crazy.” Faith said she looked through the peephole and there was Kuh standing at her door with a man. Faith tried to close the blinds to pretend she was not home, but Kuh noticed and accused Faith of not acting like a friend and further told her to “Stop being sketchy!”

Faith opened the front door, and Kuh and her male friend stepped into Faith's home without being invited, according to her testimony.

Kuh told Faith that she was pregnant and needed to use her restroom, and her male friend sat on the couch. Faith allowed her to use the bathroom connected to the master bedroom — in that room there were pegs on the wall, where the keys to the Nissan were hanging.

These people in her home made Faith nervous so she walked outside to get cel reception so she could call her friend Victoria. This friend soon arrived, and when she walked in she asked Faith why those people out front were “trying to remove the tracker” from her Nissan. Faith went out front to discover that Kuh and her male friend and the Nissan had disappeared.

“I thought she was still in the bathroom,” Faith testified. “The keys were gone.”

She called Ryan. “He was at work at the time.” Ryan called the police, who went to his home, where Faith waited. She testified that police told her do not let Kuh know they are coming for her.

The car was stopped in 20 or 30 minutes.

It was an Oceanside police officer who found Kuh near the vehicle, which was stopped in Vista. There were no one inside the vehicle, Kuh told the officer that Faith had given her the keys to the car, and she admitted driving it. She admitted throwing the keys into some bushes nearby, and the keys were found and recovered.

Ryan testified that the console of lights on the ceiling of his Nissan was broken and the parts were on the floor. Ryan estimated it might be $280 damage, adding up parts and labor.

In a pre-trial hearing, defense attorney Angelo Reyes suggested that Kuh had permission to take the car. Attorney Reyes told the judge that his client has no criminal background, and that she did not attempt to flee, and he pleaded for the court to reduce two felony charges to misdemeanors. Reyes declared that Kuh has “an education in criminal justice as well.”

Kuh, 31, wore a black pantsuit to court, and towering black velvet wedgie shoes with stiletto heels. She is a petite woman with a volume of red, wavy hair falling down her back. She has been at liberty on bail, and remains so.

Prosecutor Brad Mannering charged two felonies: steal vehicle and possession of stolen vehicle.

Judge Robert Kearney remarked that Kuh “shows consciousness of guilt.”

Brianna Jolene Kuh, 31, pleads not-guilty to two felonies and is next due in court on

Aug 2, to confirm a trial date of Aug 22.