Source: https://www.flanarylawfirm.com/criminal-defense/theft-crimes/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 07:21:40+00:00

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A person commits theft “if he unlawfully appropriates property with intent to deprive the owner of property.” Penal Code § 31.03(a). The potential penalties for a theft crime depend, in part, on the type of property stolen and the value of the property stolen. Penalties can range from a Class C misdemeanor all the way up to a first-degree felony.
The most common form of theft is shoplifting an item from a retail establishment such as a department store. Another common type of theft charge occurs when an employee steals money or other property from an employer.
A theft can become elevated to a robbery if the person intentionally or knowingly threatening or placing another in fear of imminent bodily injury. Penal Code § 29.02.
If you were arrested for a theft crime in the greater San Antonio area, then contact an experienced criminal defense attorney at Flanary Law Firm, PLLC. Don Flanary represents clients charged with property and theft crimes throughout San Antonio and Bexar County. He also represents clients in the surrounding counties of Kendall County, Comal County, Guadalupe County, Wilson County, Atascosa County, Medina County, and Bandera County.
Call for a free consultation to discuss the criminal charges pending against you and the best ways to aggressively fight the charges at every stage of case. Call (210) 319-4385 today.
the value of property stolen is less than $100.
the property stolen is a driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, or personal identification certificate issued by any state.
the value of property stolen is $750 or more but less than $2,500.
the property stolen is tubing, rods, or water gate stems and value is less than $20,000.
the value of property stolen is $20,000 or more but less than $100,000.
the value of the property stolen is less than $300,000 and the property stolen is an automated teller machine or the contents or components of an automated teller machine.
the defendant was a public servant at the time of the offense and the property appropriated came into the defendant’s custody, possession, or control by virtue of his status as a public servant.
Texas law provides for several legal definitions for terms used in statutes related to theft crimes. For instances, the term “appropriate” means to acquire or otherwise exercise control over property other than real property.” Penal Code § 31.01(4)(B). Appropriation of property is unlawful if it “is without the owner’s effective consent.” Penal Code § 31.03(b)(1).
An intent to deprive an owner of his property means an intent “to withhold the property from the owner permanently or for so extended a period of time that a major portion of the value or enjoyment of the property is lost to the owner.” Penal Code § 31.01(2)(A).
given by a person who by reason of advanced age is known by the actor to have a diminished capacity to make informed and rational decisions about the reasonable disposition of property.
Possession of recently stolen property is not sufficient to establish knowledge that property was stolen. Walker v. State, 539 S.W.2d 894 (Tex.Crim.App. 1976). Instead, Texas law provides that the possession of property recently stolen is a mere circumstance from which no inference of guilt is drawn as a matter of law.
When the offers an explanation when arrested that he bought the property in good faith without knowledge that it had been stolen, a good faith and lack of knowledge defense should be submitted to the jury, but an instruction on “recent possession and explanation” is unnecessary. Callaway v. State, 151 Tex.Crim. 94, 204 S.W.2d 842 (1947).
In some cases, the prosecutor will ask for a jury instruction regarding receivers in the business of receiving second-hand property. In other cases, the use of the Penal Code § 31.03(c)(3) presumption regarding second-hand dealers would be unconstitutional as applied to the defendant because failure to record the required information was not under the facts of this case, an indicator that, more likely than not, he knew that any given item he may have bought had been unlawfully acquired.
This article was last updated on Tuesday, January 3, 2016.

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