Burglary
Have you been charged with burglary in Oklahoma for a crime that doesn’t involve theft? Hi, I’m Oklahoma City Attorney Aaron Easton, and believe it or not, that’s pretty common. So while most of us think about burglary as entering a home or a vehicle to commit some theft, the way the statute is written does not always mean that.
So with burglary, what the state is saying you did is that you crossed the threshold of that car, or more likely, that home, with the intent to commit a crime at the time you’ve crossed the threshold. So this is an important concept, because in Oklahoma, and really across the country, crimes fall under two different categories, a general intent crime or a specific intent crime.
The Difference Between General Intent and Specific Intent Crimes
In a general intent crime, the state just has to prove that you had the intent to do an act that led to a crime. A specific intent crime means that it’s the state’s job in order to get a conviction, if that’s what they’re looking for, and obviously they are, it’s their job to show that you had the specific intent to commit something.
In burglary, that is, and I’ll pull up the statute here just briefly, so it talks about entering a dwelling with the intent to commit a crime. So at the point that you cross the threshold in the house, you have to have the specific intent in mind, or the state has to prove that you had that specific intent, to commit a crime inside.
The Importance of an Attorney
And so often, they charge individuals with burglary who commit some other crime inside of a home, such as domestic violence, or an assault and battery, or a sexual assault crime, or something of that nature. They also tack on burglary, but the reason you want an attorney in that situation is because they understand the state is going to have to prove that not only did you commit whatever other crime they’re talking about inside, for the burglary to stick, they have to show that you had that intention to commit the crime.
So it’s important not to speak to law enforcement when interviewed about this kind of thing, and certainly not to talk to the state and the prosecutor about it, because burglary is an extremely important crime. It’s a crime that carries a sentence up to 20 years. It’s a crime in which you have to serve 85% of your time.
Take Action and Consult an Attorney
A lot of times, folks look at it as a throwaway, as just attached to some other, what they think of as a more egregious crime, but it’s really not. It’s a crime that the state uses a lot, and a lot of people get convicted of and spend a lot of time in prison.
So if you’ve been charged with burglary in the state of Oklahoma, you’re gonna wanna speak to an attorney privately and confidentially about the circumstances of your individual case. To do so with an attorney at my firm, you can reach us at oklahomacitycriminaldefenseattorney.pro for a initial consultation.