State of Kansas v. Tommy Lee Yardley

Garden City, Kansas criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with felony theft.<br>
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A jury convicted Tommy Lee Yardley of felony theft of property that was worth at least $25,000, but less than $100,000. The property consisted of a truck and trailer containing tools. On appeal, Yardley argues the district court erred by not instructing the jury to be unanimous about which items were stolen. Yardley contends this is a multiple acts case because multiple items were stolen. But this case does not present a multiple acts issue because Yardley committed one action of theft. That is, Yardley stole all the items at once. And even if we agreed that his case should be treated as a multiple acts case, Yardley failed to show how he was prejudiced by the absence of this instruction when considering all the instructions that were given. <br>
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CRIMINAL LAW. JURY INSTRUCTIONS. The case addresses whether the trial court's failure to provide a unanimity instruction for the jury regarding the theft of multiple items constitutes clear error, as the defendant argued that the jury needed to agree on which specific items were stolen to meet a statutory value threshold for felony theft.<br>
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CRIMINAL LAW. MULTIPLE ACTS CASE. The court examined whether the theft of a truck, attached trailer, and tools constituted a "multiple acts" case requiring a unanimous jury verdict for each individual act, ultimately determining that it was a single continuous action and thus a multiple acts instruction was not necessary.<br>
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CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. APPELLATE REVIEW. The appellate court considered whether the absence of a specific unanimity instruction was clearly erroneous and whether any potential error affected the trial outcome, affirming the conviction since the jury's verdict was reached based on their assessment of the single action of theft.<br>
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Key Phrases Felony theft conviction. Unanimous jury verdict. Multiple acts case. Surveillance footage evidence. Property value threshold.

Affirmed