This bill increases penalties for repeat offenders of property crimes involving stores. It requires a judge to impose at least the midpoint of the sentencing range for someone convicted of burglary, robbery, theft, or similar crimes from a store if they have two prior convictions for similar offenses within the past four years. It also clarifies that the value of a stolen gift card is its full face value (or maximum potential value for variable load cards) and adds gift cards to the types of documents that can be involved in forgery crimes.
Summary
Current law requires mandatory sentencing to at least the minimum
of the prescribed range for a person who, within the immediately preceding 4 years, was twice convicted of felony theft from a store and who is once again convicted of felony theft from a store.
The bill requires a state court to sentence a person convicted of
burglary, robbery, theft, or a related property crime from or of a store, who was convicted of any 2 of the specified property crimes or comparable municipal offenses from or of a store within the preceding 4 years, to at least the midpoint term for the current offense.
The bill adds language to the existing theft statute clarifying how
a gift card's value is determined for purposes of determining the offense level and associated penalty. If the stolen item of value is a gift card, then the value is the full monetary face value or, in the case of a variable load gift card, the maximum potential value, regardless of whether funds have been transferred to the gift card at the time of the theft. The bill adds gift cards to the list of written instruments subject to forgery.
