People v. Garner
Annotate this CaseThe trial court found that defendant entered a grocery store with intent to commit theft by false pretenses, and determined that defendant was statutorily ineligible to have her felony burglary conviction reduced to a misdemeanor. This appeal involves an issue currently pending before the California Supreme Court: whether a felony conviction for second degree commercial burglary, Penal Code 459, is reducible to misdemeanor shoplifting if the defendant entered the commercial establishment with intent to commit theft by false pretenses. As enacted by the voters, section 459.5 provides that “shoplifting” is committed when, inter alia, a defendant enters a commercial establishment with “intent to commit larceny.” The court concluded that the voters intended “larceny” as used in section 459.5 to include all forms of “theft,” including “theft by false pretenses.” In this case, defendant’s second degree commercial burglary conviction based on using a forged $100 traveler’s check is a nonviolent offense, not demonstrably more serious than classic shoplifting, viz., entering a store and filching $100 worth of items. Reclassifying it as a misdemeanor is thus consistent with the articulated purposes behind Proposition 47. Therefore, the court concluded that defendant is eligible to have her felony burglary conviction reclassified to misdemeanor shoplifting.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.