Penal Code § 666 PC is the charge commonly filed when you commit petty theft while having a criminal record that includes certain prior convictions. The crime is often referred to as “petty theft with a prior.”
The key language of the statute reads as follows:
666. (a) Notwithstanding Section 490, any person described in subdivision (b) who, having been convicted of petty theft, grand theft, a conviction pursuant to subdivision (d) or (e) of Section 368, auto theft under Section 10851 of the Vehicle Code, burglary, carjacking, robbery, or a felony violation of Section 496, and having served a term of imprisonment therefor in any penal institution or having been imprisoned therein as a condition of probation for that offense, and who is subsequently convicted of petty theft, is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison.
Per Penal Code 488 PC, petty theft is stealing someone’s property or services worth $950 or less. According to PC 666, you commit petty theft with a prior when:
- you have a prior conviction for a theft crime, and
- you served a term in a penal institution for that conviction, and
- you have a prior conviction for either a violent offense or a certain sex crime.
Petty theft with a prior can be a misdemeanor or a felony:
| PC 666 conviction | California penalties |
| Misdemeanor | Up to 1 year in county jail |
| Felony | 16 months, 2 years, or 3 years in county jail |
Our California criminal defense attorneys will highlight the following in this article:
- 1. Definition
- 2. Defenses
- 3. Penalties
- 4. Immigration
- 5. Expungement
- 6. Gun rights
- 7. Related offenses
- Additional reading
Petty theft is stealing someone’s property or services worth $950 or less.
1. Definition
Per Penal Code 666 PC, you will receive a sentencing enhancement for a petty theft conviction when:
- you have a prior conviction for a theft crime, and
- you served a term in a penal institution for that conviction, and
- you have a prior conviction for either a violent offense or a certain sex crime.1
Note that the above three elements are sentencing factors. A prosecutor does not:
- have to prove them in order to
- convict you of the underlying petty theft charge.2
Questions often arise under this statute on the meaning of:
- prior conviction of a theft crime, and
- prior conviction of a violent offense or certain sex crimes.
Prior conviction of a theft crime
In order to face penalties under this statute, you must first have had:
- at least one prior conviction for a California theft crime, and
- served a jail or prison term for that crime.
The theft crimes that lead to increased penalties are:
- petty theft (Penal Code 488 PC),
- grand theft (Penal Code 487 PC),
- burglary (Penal Code 459 PC),
- carjacking (Penal Code 215 PC),
- robbery (Penal Code 211 PC), and
- felony receiving stolen property (Penal Code 496 PC).3
Prior convictions of a violent offense or certain sex crimes
Simply having a prior conviction for a theft crime is not enough for PC 666 to come into play. In order for you to be sentenced under this law, one of the following also needs to be true:
- you have a prior sex crime conviction that requires you to register under California’s sex offender registration law, or
- you have a prior conviction for a certain serious and/or violent felony.4
According to this statute, serious and/or violent felonies include:
- “sexually violent offenses,” which means sex crimes committed by use of force, violence, or threat of bodily injury,
- sex crimes against a child under the age of 14,
- murder or attempted murder (Penal Code 187 PC),
- gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated (Penal Code 191.5),
- solicitation to commit murder,
- assault with a machine gun on a peace officer or firefighter (Penal Code 245a2 PC),
- possession of a weapon of mass destruction, and
- any serious and/or violent felony that is punishable by life in prison or death.5
2. Defenses
Here at Shouse Law Group, we have represented literally thousands of people charged with petty theft who have prior convictions. In our experience, the following defenses have proven very effective with prosecutors, judges, and juries in California.
You are innocent of petty theft
Even if you have prior convictions, PC 666 charges do not apply if you are innocent of the current petty theft allegation. Depending on the case, we may be able to persuade prosecutors to drop the petty theft charge by arguing:
- the property you took belonged to you,
- you were falsely accused,
- you only borrowed the property,
- you acted with the owner’s consent, and/or
- the police found the allegedly stolen property through an unlawful search
You have no qualifying priors
You cannot be convicted under PC 666 if you do not have qualifying prior convictions.
We often claim this defense for clients who had long ago prior convictions that are not easily accessible through court records. Or if your prior case was in a different state, we may be able to argue it does not fit California’s legal definition of a qualifying conviction.
Either way, if prosecutors cannot produce sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt you had a prior qualifying conviction, at most you would face only petty theft charges.
A Penal Code 666 PC conviction can lead to up to 3 years of jail time.
3. Felony
A petty theft charge, on its own, is:
- a misdemeanor, and
- punishable by custody in county jail for up to six months.6
Petty theft with a prior conviction becomes a wobbler offense. This means that a prosecutor can charge it as either a:
- misdemeanor, or
- felony.
A misdemeanor conviction is punishable by imprisonment in county jail for up to one year.7 A felony conviction is punishable by custody in jail for up to three years.8
Obviously, misdemeanor penalties are far preferable to felony ones. Therefore, we try every hard to contact the prosecutor right after your arrest to try to persuade them to:
- bring misdemeanor charges rather than felony charges, or
- not to bring any charges at all.
4. Immigration
A conviction under Penal Code 666, on its own, will not have any immigration consequences. However, many of our immigrant clients already experienced immigration hardships due to their prior convictions.
5. Expungement
You can get an expungement for a “petty theft with a prior” charge provided that you complete your:
- probation, or
- jail sentence (whichever is applicable).
This is favorable since an expungement releases you from many of the hardships caused by a conviction.9 Note, though, that you may not be able to get certain prior convictions expunged.
6. Gun rights
If you are convicted of “petty theft with a prior “as a felony, then you would lose your gun rights. That is why we try to hard to get these charges dismissed or charged as a misdemeanor so that there is no effect on your gun rights.
However, many of our clients facing “petty theft with a prior” charges have already lost their gun rights due to a prior felony conviction.
7. Related offenses
Petty theft – PC 488
Penal Code 488 PC is the California statute that makes it a crime to steal someone’s property or services worth $950 or less. It is not a defense to say that you intended to restore the property that was wrongfully taken.
Grand theft – PC 487
Per Penal Code 487 PC, grand theft is the unlawful taking of someone else’s property valued at $950 or more. A conviction of this crime is a prior that may trigger enhanced sentencing under PC 666.
Receiving stolen property – PC 496
Penal Code 496 PC makes it a crime to buy, receive, conceal, or sell any property that you know to be stolen. A conviction of felony receiving stolen property is a prior that may prompt sentencing under Penal Code 666.
Additional resources
For more information, refer to the following:
- What to Know About Being Addicted to Stealing – Article by WebMD.
- Cleptomaniacs And Shoplifters Anonymous, LLC – Self-help group to help overcome compulsive stealing.
- National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) – Provides programs and services to help stem shoplifting.
- Retail Theft and Robbery Rates Have Risen across California – Article by the Public Policy Institute of California.
- Tax evasion and mechanisms of social control: A comparison with grand and petty theft – Scholarly article in Journal of Economic Psychology.
Legal References:
- CALCRIM No. 1850 – Petty Theft with Prior Conviction. Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions (2017 edition). See also People v. Bruno (1987) 191 Cal.App.3d 1102; and, People v. Bean (1989) 213 Cal.App.3d 639.
- CALCRIM No. 1850 – Petty Theft with Prior Conviction. See also People v. Bouzas (1991) 53 Cal.3d 467; and, People v. Stevens (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 982.
- California Penal Code 666 PC.
- See same.
- See same.
- California Penal Code 488 and Penal Code 19.
- Penal Code 666 PC.
- See same.
- California Penal Code 1203.4 PC.