Petty Theft, and Petty Theft with Prior
Posted: Monday, June 05, 2006
by Darren Kavinoky
THE KAVINOKY LAW FIRM
Theft is the act of stealing goods. Petty theft involves stealing goods or services worth $400 or less and is charged as a misdemeanor for first time offenses. Where the value of goods stolen is less than $50, the misdemeanor may be reduced to an infraction. Where there is a conviction for a subsequent petty theft, that offense is a felony petty theft.
If it is not goods that are stolen, but rather services, the value of the services is determined by either the contract price, if there is a contract, or by a reasonable and going range of the services rendered.
Petty Theft
Petty theft is the act of stealing goods or services valued at $400 or less. A first offense is punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and/or imprisonment in the county jail up to six months.
An example of petty theft is the act of shoplifting. Shoplifting means taking something of value from a retail store. To commit shoplifting, one must have the intent to permanently deprive the merchant of the value of the merchandise. Shoplifting is often accomplished by concealing merchandise inside of a purse, pocket, bag, or any number of methods. Other examples of shoplifting include: switching price tags, changing the numbers on price tags, consuming food and then hiding the wrappers, leaving a restaurant without paying the bill, or wearing articles of clothing, concealing the tags, and walking out of the store.
Petty Theft, with Prior
Under California Penal Code Section 666, two or more offenses of petty theft may be charged as felony petty theft. Convictions for repeated petty theft offenders may include state prison sentences of up to 16 months.
Petty theft with a prior, also known as felony petty theft, makes it possible for someone convicted of a minor shoplifting crime to be charged with a felony if the person had been convicted of any theft-related offense at any time in the past. If the person so charged has two previous felony convictions, this in turn can result in a 25 years to life sentence under California ’s Three Strikes Law (a.k.a. “Three Strikes, and You’re Out").
This law has resulted in some unusual scenarios. Some defendants have been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for shoplifting golf clubs, videotapes, and even a slice of pepperoni pizza. Furthermore, the California the parole board has carte blanche to grant or withhold parole for any rational reason. This means a person could serve many, many years in state prison for a relatively minor offense (so long as the person had had two prior felonies). It is also possible for a defendant to be charged and convicted with two "third strikes" in the same proceeding, and to be given two separate sentences to run consecutively, which together make for a sentence of 50 years to life.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)I am striked out i have been off porole for 7 months and altogether 3 years i was on parole, doing very good that they let me off early I got busted shoplifting, 39.00 shoes, am i going to get 25 years to life? please anwer!!Anonymous "striked out" you probably won't get the opportunity to read this.Because you are probably in the slammer right now, and will not be given computeraccess, even at the library. If not, then sit down.You will soon be in prison for a long time. For you , this will suck.For the rest of us who have had to suffer your behavior, this will be goodand bad.Good--because you will not be out here with us.Bad--because we will have to pay for your upkeep.I wish this part was different, I wish you had to pay for your upkeep.Maybe someday, somebody will figure out how to arrange this...like inmates selling their body parts, or something like that.I bet there is somebody out there with a really good idea.Anyhoo, syonara. I hope the brief thought of those new shoes was worth it.This really sucks. Some people are poor and need to steal to survive.
Darren should spen more time working with his cliants that have already paid him a fortune.Insted he farms out his work and get his people to just keep asking for more money for doing nothing.I think this is more than petty theft.
thats all a lie lol....these people on this webssite is just trying to scare you...If its your first time stilling you go to court pAY A FINE....AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE...IN AA COUPLE OF YEARS HIGHER A LAWYER AND EXPUNGE IT FROM YOUR RECORD.....EVERYBODY ON THIS SITE HAS NO SENSE....Trust me i was in this sittuation, all my friends were to and i am like 19Trust i know
I wanted to know if someone already had a felony for commerical burglary and just got a new case for petty theft what is the outcome.Hello, I was wondering if, since your post was 116 days ago, what the outcome was. I am in a similar situation now and could use all the help I can get.
Yeah, so now taxpayers get stuck with paying 50-100,000 dollars per year to incarcerate these people for crimes of less than 1,000 bucks. You wonder why we're broke. These laws are ridiculous, it's what insurance is for. This law isn't in all states, just the really, really, broke ones, like California. It never deters anything, it just causes more violent crime.
I know one thing..If I was ever of a mind to theft anything- I would certainly change my mind after reading this! :)
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