Opinion ID: 1987249
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Theft Conviction Based on Unpaid Hotel Bill.

Text: Our review of the trial record reveals adequate evidence from which the jury could infer that Rivers did not intend to pay for the hotel rooms. Although Rivers claims that he believed the insurance company would pay his hotel bills based on his insurance coverage for additional living expenses, the adjuster testified that he unequivocally told Rivers before Rivers registered at the Red Carpet Inn that Rivers had to pay the hotel bill from the advance he had already been given. In fact, it was after the first hotel was informed by the insurer that Rivers was personally responsible for the hotel expenses that Rivers moved his family to a new, unsuspecting hotel. Once there, the family stayed for seventeen days and then left without checking out. Moreover, their abandonment of the premises without removing all their clothes and food left a false impression that they were coming back. From this conduct the jury could have inferred that Rivers was attempting to delay any suspicion on the part of the hotel that they were skipping out on their bill. Finally, Rivers left no forwarding address where the bill could be sent and he never filed a claim with the insurance company for the Red Carpet Inn bill. The inference of intent that can be drawn from these circumstances is validated by the theft-by-deception statute which provides: Where the compensation for goods and services is ordinarily paid immediately upon the obtaining of such goods or the rendering of such services, the refusal to pay or leaving the premises without payment or offer to pay or without having obtained from the owner or operator the right to pay subsequent to leaving the premises gives rise to an inference that the goods or services were obtained by deception. Iowa Code § 714.1(3). Not only did Rivers fail to pay the hotel bill upon leaving, as is customary, he did not leave any forwarding address where the bill could be sent. The only evidence that he made any arrangements for later payment is the fact that he had earlier given the hotel the name and address of his insurance company. But the jury could have readily concluded that this information was given, not to facilitate payment of the bill (since Rivers had been told by the insurance company that it would not pay the bill), but rather was part of Rivers' scheme to obtain rooms for his family without spending any of the advance he had already received. We conclude the evidence was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that Rivers rented the rooms without any intent to pay for them. Therefore, the trial court correctly denied Rivers' motion for judgment of acquittal on this charge.