The criminal defense attorneys at Combs Law Group have years of experience defending clients in St. Louis and throughout Missouri. Every case is different, each one with varying specifics that could alter a defense strategy, but some common defenses to theft/larceny include:
Belief of Ownership or Right
You aren’t accused of larceny by taking your own property, so if you have a good-faith belief that you own a piece of property or have a right to use it we may have a good larceny defense. This could be the case even if your belief is false or unreasonable.
Entrapment
Entrapment occurs when someone induces you, an innocent party, to commit a crime that you normally wouldn’t have committed. In order to claim entrapment, you must not have had any prior inclination to commit the crime, and must do so only on the enticement of the entrapping party. For example, if a police officer sets up a car with the keys in the ignition and just waits for someone to come up and attempt to steal it, no entrapment has taken place. However, if that police officer points out the car to you and encourages you to steal the car, you would have a strong argument in support of an entrapment defense.
Duress
You can claim that someone else forced you to commit theft or larceny through threats of force, blackmail, etc. If you can provide sufficient proof for this claim, the prosecution or jury may find that you did not act voluntarily and should bear no responsibility for the crime.