Maryland Criminal Defense · Theft & Property

Maryland Theft Charges Explained: How the Dollar Amount on Your Charging Document Decides Whether You Face 90 Days or 20 Years

One dollar of alleged value separates a misdemeanor from a felony in Maryland. Here is how the State picks that number — and how it gets challenged.

By Amir Guerami, Esq. · The Guerami Law Firm, LLC

You have a charging document in your hand. Somewhere on it is a number — a dollar figure the State has assigned to what it says you took. Most people skim past that number looking for the words that frighten them: theft, felony, warrant.

The number is the case.

In Maryland, that single figure decides which courthouse you sit in, whether you are a misdemeanant or a felon, whether a jury is available to you, how much time a judge can impose, and whether you will be explaining this on job applications for the rest of your life.

Here is how the system actually works, what the State has to prove, and where these cases are genuinely fought.

The Statute

One Law, Five Different Crimes

Maryland consolidated its old patchwork of larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, and shoplifting offenses into one general theft statute: Md. Code, Crim. Law § 7-104. It covers unauthorized taking, theft by deception, possession of stolen property, and theft of services.

But the penalty section splits that one statute into five very different offenses, separated entirely by alleged value:

• Less than $100 — Misdemeanor. Maximum 90 days incarceration and a fine up to $500.

• At least $100 but less than $1,500 — Misdemeanor. Maximum 6 months for a first offense. If you have a prior theft conviction, the exposure rises to 1 year.

• At least $1,500 but less than $25,000 — Felony. Maximum 5 years and a fine up to $10,000.

• At least $25,000 but less than $100,000 — Felony. Maximum 10 years and a fine up to $15,000.

• $100,000 or more — Felony. Maximum 20 years and a fine up to $25,000.

On top of any sentence, the court can order you to return the property or pay its value to the owner. Restitution is not optional relief for the victim — it is a judgment that can follow you long after the case number closes.

$1,499 is a misdemeanor. $1,500 is a felony. One dollar changes your maximum exposure from six months to five years.

Stare at the boundary between the second and third tiers. That single dollar moves your case from the District Court to the Circuit Court in most instances, and attaches the word felon to your name permanently.

Valuation

Where the Value Number Actually Comes From

Here is what most defendants assume: the number is a fact. The store said the jacket was $220, so the jacket was $220.

That is not the law.

Md. Code, Crim. Law § 7-103 governs how value is determined, and it says value means fair market value at the time and place of the crime. Not replacement cost. Not the original purchase price. Not what the item meant to the person who lost it. Market value — what the property was actually worth, used and depreciated, on the day in question.

That distinction quietly decides a lot of Maryland theft cases. A four-year-old laptop that retailed for $1,600 is not a $1,600 laptop. A set of tools bought over a decade is not worth the sum of the receipts. A vehicle's value is not the number the owner hopes to get for it. When the State builds its felony on a number nobody has actually proven, that felony is vulnerable.

★Leverage Point

Value is an element the State must prove — not a fact it gets to assert.

• Fair market value means depreciated, used-condition value on the date of the alleged theft.

• A retail price tag is evidence of value, not proof of it.

• When value cannot be determined, § 7-103 does not let the State guess upward — the case falls to the lowest tier.

• Moving a proven value below $1,500 converts a felony into a misdemeanor.

Aggregation

How Small Cases Become Felonies

The second half of § 7-103 is the part that surprises people most, and it is the reason a defendant charged with taking a few hundred dollars can find themselves facing five years.

Subsection (f) allows the State to treat multiple thefts as one crime — and to add the values together — when the conduct was part of "one scheme or continuing course of conduct," whether the property came from one source or several.

In practice, that means:

• An employee accused of taking $300 from a register on six occasions is not looking at six misdemeanors. The State will charge one felony at $1,800.

• A person accused of taking merchandise from the same chain across three counties may see those separate incidents pulled into a single aggregated count.

Aggregation is not automatic and it is not arithmetic. It is a legal theory the State has to support — that these were connected acts under a unified plan rather than separate, independent decisions. Whether the incidents share a common scheme, whether the intent was formed once or repeatedly, and how far apart in time and method they sit are all arguable. Defendants who do not know aggregation is a fight simply accept the felony as given.

Five separate $400 decisions are not automatically one $2,000 felony. That is an argument the State has to win.

The Insider Lens

What Prosecutors Actually Look At

When I was the one filing these charges, I did not start with the police narrative. I started with the value line.

Value determines the charge. The charge determines the court. The court determines the leverage. Everything downstream — plea posture, sentencing guidelines, whether a jury is even in play — flows from that one figure.

The second thing a prosecutor evaluates is provability of intent. Theft in Maryland is not "the item left the store." The State must prove you intended to deprive the owner of the property — and, for most theories, intended to do so permanently. A confused customer, a disputed ownership claim, a co-worker with equal access to the cash drawer: these are intent problems, and prosecutors know which of their files have them.

Third is the witness. Theft cases lean hard on loss prevention officers, store managers, and complaining witnesses. Those witnesses move, quit, and stop returning calls. A case that looks strong on paper can be thin in the courtroom.

Fourth is the defendant's own statement. Nothing improves a marginal theft case for the State like a recorded explanation from the accused.

Costly Errors

The Mistakes That Wreck These Cases

!Do Not Do These Things

Every one of these is a routine, well-intentioned move that makes a theft case harder to defend.

• Do not pay the complaining witness back on your own. Restitution paid before trial does not dismiss a criminal charge, and the State may present it as consciousness of guilt. Reimbursement can be valuable — but it should be handled deliberately, through counsel, at the right moment.

• Do not explain. "I was going to pay for it." "I thought it was mine." "I only borrowed it." Loss prevention officers and detectives are trained to obtain exactly these statements, because each one concedes possession and puts intent on the table.

• Do not sign the store's civil demand letter. Retailers frequently send civil recovery demands. That is a separate civil claim — signing it does not close the criminal case, and what you write can end up in the State's file.

• Do not plead at your first appearance because the number looks small. That plea is permanent, and it spends every piece of leverage before it is ever used.

And do not treat a "small" theft as harmless. A theft conviction is a crime of dishonesty. It shows up differently than almost any other misdemeanor — background checks flag it, licensing boards ask about it, and employers who will forgive a bar fight will not forgive a theft.

The Defense

What a Real Defense Looks Like

A serious theft defense is not a speech at sentencing. It is a set of specific attacks on the State's weakest points, run in order:

• Attack the number. Demand documentation of fair market value. Depreciation, condition, and comparable market pricing are all fair ground. If the felony rests on an unproven figure, the tier can be moved.

• Challenge the aggregation theory. If the State combined incidents to clear a threshold, force it to prove the common scheme. Separate acts, separately decided, are separate misdemeanors.

• Test how the case was made. Was the stop lawful? Was the search supported? Was the property properly identified and preserved? Suppression motions win theft cases before trial more often than most defendants expect.

• Examine intent. Permanent deprivation is an element, not an assumption. Documentation of ownership, permission, or a genuine mistake goes directly to the State's weakest point.

• Position for the right disposition. Where the facts and record support it, the goal may be probation before judgment (PBJ) — a disposition that avoids a conviction on the record — or a negotiated reduction below the felony line.

★What PBJ Means

Probation before judgment is a Maryland disposition in which the court strikes the guilty finding and places you on probation instead of entering a conviction.

• It is not an acquittal and it is not automatic — it is a discretionary decision by the judge.

• It matters most in theft cases precisely because a theft conviction is a crime of dishonesty that follows you.

• Whether it is realistically available depends on the facts, your record, and the county. No one can promise it.

!Before You Talk to Anyone

If a detective, a store investigator, or a former employer contacts you about a theft allegation, do not try to clear it up yourself. Talk to a Maryland criminal defense lawyer first. There is no version of that conversation that helps you and a great many versions that hurt.

The number printed on your charging document is not a finding. It is an allegation the State chose — and allegations get tested.

What is achievable in your case depends entirely on the specific facts, your record, and where you were charged. But the starting point is the same for everyone: someone has to look at that number and ask the State to prove it.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Maryland law changes, and every case turns on its own facts. If you or someone you love has been charged, speak with a Maryland criminal defense attorney about your specific situation before making any decisions.

Charged in Maryland?

If you have been charged with a crime or a serious traffic offense in Maryland, do not plead until you have spoken to a lawyer who has stood on both sides of the courtroom. Contact The Guerami Law Firm, LLC through NoPleaMD.com for a confidential consultation with Amir Guerami and his team.

The Guerami Law Firm, LLC NoPleaMD.com