Manny stories have been on the news for people stealing Christmas packages which results in mail theft and possession of stolen property charges. Police in Edina caught an individual who stole a package, which had a tracker inside of it.
As we have mentioned previously in this blog, for someone in St. Paul to be convicted of a crime, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual did what he or she was charged with doing. If the prosecutor can’t prove this, then the jury must acquit the defendant of the charges. If it is clear that the prosecutor doesn’t have any evidence or not nearly enough evidence, the prosecutor may drop the charges altogether.
A former Minneapolis police lieutenant was convicted in December on one charge of theft by swindle and four charges of forgery stemming from an incident that happened three years ago. She will be sentenced Feb. 5.
Despite pleading guilty in the case, a 25-year-old man from Rochester was still given a stiff sentence inside federal court recently. The man, who pled guilty to robbing three different McDonald’s restaurants, was sentenced to 14 years behind bars.
This blog has previously mentioned the high degree of evidence that the state of Minnesota must prove to be able to convict someone of a crime. Not only must there be evidence, but the evidence must be credible and must be lawfully obtained. If it is not or if there is insufficient evidence to prove a suspect committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the state will lose and the suspect will be acquitted of any wrongdoing.
Sometimes teenagers make mistakes. Nearly every adult in Minneapolis can name at least one mistake he or she made while a teenager, but many of those mistakes did not ruin the rest of their lives. For one 19-year-old man from Minneapolis, he is learning about the extreme punishment that comes with stealing a $20 bill.
A 24-year-old woman from Minneapolis has been arrested and charged with felony theft after she supposedly stole items from the Apple Valley Home Depot in December. What Dakota County prosecutors will have to prove, however, is that the woman knew that her friends were stealing from the Home Depot when she drove them away from the store.
