FIRST REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 550
92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR SCOTT.
Read 1st time February 20, 2003, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
1492S.01I
AN ACT
To repeal sections 570.020 and 570.030, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to stealing, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Sections 570.020 and 570.030, RSMo, are repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 570.020 and 570.030, to read as follows:
570.020. For the purposes of this chapter, the value of property shall be ascertained as follows:
(1) Except as otherwise specified in this section, "value" means the market value of the property at the time and place of the crime, or if such cannot be satisfactorily ascertained, the cost of replacement of the property within a reasonable time after the crime. If the victim is a merchant, as defined in section 400.2-104, RSMo, and the property is a type that the merchant sells in the ordinary course of business, then the property shall be valued at the price that such merchant would normally sell such property;
(2) Whether or not they have been issued or delivered, certain written instruments, not including those having a readily ascertainable market value such as some public and corporate bonds and securities, shall be evaluated as follows:
(a) The value of an instrument constituting evidence of debt, such as a check, draft or promissory note, shall be deemed the amount due or collectible thereon or thereby, such figure ordinarily being the face amount of the indebtedness less any portion thereof which has been satisfied;
(b) The value of any other instrument which creates, releases, discharges or otherwise affects any valuable legal right, privilege or obligation shall be deemed the greatest amount of economic loss which the owner of the instrument might reasonably suffer by virtue of the loss of the instrument;
(3) The rental value of the property, determined at the rental rate contracted by the defendant, or, if no rental rate was contracted, the rental rate customarily charged by the owner for use of the property, plus any damage that occurred to the property while the owner was deprived of its possession, but not exceeding the total retail value of the property at the time of the rental;
[(3)] (4) When the value of property cannot be satisfactorily ascertained pursuant to the standards set forth in subdivisions (1) and (2) of this section, its value shall be deemed to be an amount less than five hundred dollars.
570.030. 1. A person commits the crime of stealing if he or she appropriates property or services of another with the purpose to deprive him or her thereof, either without his or her consent or by means of deceit or coercion.
2. Evidence of the following is admissible in any criminal prosecution pursuant to this section on the issue of the requisite knowledge or belief of the alleged stealer:
(1) That he or she failed or refused to pay for property or services of a hotel, restaurant, inn or boardinghouse;
(2) That he or she gave in payment for property or services of a hotel, restaurant, inn or boardinghouse a check or negotiable paper on which payment was refused;
(3) That he or she left the hotel, restaurant, inn or boardinghouse with the intent to not pay for property or services;
(4) That he or she surreptitiously removed or attempted to remove his or her baggage from a hotel, inn or boardinghouse;
(5) That he or she, with intent to cheat or defraud a retailer, possesses, uses, utters, transfers, makes, alters, counterfeits, or reproduces a retail sales receipt, price tag, or universal price code label, or possesses with intent to cheat or defraud, the device that manufactures fraudulent receipts or universal price code labels.
3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any offense in which the value of property or services is an element is a class C felony if:
(1) The value of the property or services appropriated is five hundred dollars or more but less than twenty-five thousand dollars; or
(2) The actor physically takes the property appropriated from the person of the victim; [or]
(3) That he or she is in possession of property possessed pursuant to a short-term rental contract and that person does not return the property to the lessor at the end of the lease or rental term or returns the property to the lessor at the end of the lease or rental term, plus agreed upon extensions, but does not pay the lease or rental charges agreed upon in the written instrument;
[(3)] (4) The property appropriated consists of:
(a) Any motor vehicle, watercraft or aircraft; or
(b) Any will or unrecorded deed affecting real property; or
(c) Any credit card or letter of credit; or
(d) Any firearms; or
(e) A United States national flag designed, intended and used for display on buildings or stationary flagstaffs in the open; or
(f) Any original copy of an act, bill or resolution, introduced or acted upon by the legislature of the state of Missouri; or
(g) Any pleading, notice, judgment or any other record or entry of any court of this state, any other state or of the United States; or
(h) Any book of registration or list of voters required by chapter 115, RSMo; or
(i) Any animal of the species of horse, mule, ass, cattle, swine, sheep, or goat; or
(j) Live fish raised for commercial sale with a value of seventy-five dollars; or
(k) Any controlled substance as defined by section 195.010, RSMo; or
(l) Anhydrous ammonia; or
(m) Ammonium nitrate.
4. If an actor appropriates any material with a value less than five hundred dollars in violation of this section with the intent to use such material to manufacture, compound, produce, prepare, test or analyze amphetamine or methamphetamine or any of their analogues, then such violation is a class D felony. The theft of any amount of anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen, or any attempt to steal any amount of anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen, is a class C felony. The theft of any amount of anhydrous ammonia by appropriation of a tank truck, tank trailer, rail tank car, bulk storage tank, field (nurse) tank or field applicator is a class A felony.
5. The theft of any item of property or services pursuant to subsection 3 of this section which exceeds five hundred dollars may be considered a separate felony and may be charged in separate counts.
6. Any person with a prior conviction of paragraph (i) of subdivision [(3)] (4) of subsection 3 of this section and who violates the provisions of paragraph (i) of subdivision [(3)] (4) of subsection 3 of this section when the value of the animal or animals stolen exceeds three thousand dollars is guilty of a class B felony.
7. Any offense in which the value of property or services is an element is a class B felony if the value of the property or services equals or exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars.
8. Any violation of this section for which no other penalty is specified in this section is a class A misdemeanor.