§ 31.16. Organized Retail Theft

Anybody ever prosecuted a case under this statute?

I think we have had a number of cases filed under that statute, but none have ever gone to trial. We researched some issues a couple years back.

I have one with three individuals robbing Wal-Marts all over the state and they were apprehended in the parking lot of our local Wal-Mart.

Is there anything out there that gives an understanding of what it means for the defendant to have:

"organized, supervised, financed, or managed one or more other persons engaged in an activity . . ."

What we were working on was venue issues. If I recall correctly, we had a really gung ho detective from one of our agencies that made a project out of a bunch of these guys.

I have one pending right now that involves knocking off Wal-marts for electronics mostly. Unfortunately we've only had luck identifying 1 person. Luckily that guy has miles of history. I think he's getting passed around various other county jails for the same thing.

"I have one with three individuals robbing Wal-Marts all over the state and they were apprehended in the parking lot of our local Wal-Mart."

I'll email you my guy's name/identifiers along with some names I got from a Ranger in Dewitt (maybe) County, maybe we have some overlap?