Burglary Defenses

Question: What can I do if I was arrested for burglary?

Answer:

Burglaries in Texas are serious offenses. In all cases, other than burglary of an automobile, they’re felonies. Burglary of an automobile is a misdemeanor. Any other burglary involving a building or a habitation is a different grade of felony depending on what the person wanted to do when they entered the building. Is it a burglary to commit a theft? Is it a burglary to commit an assault? Is it a burglary to commit a sexual assault? All those things will determine what grade of offense it is. One thing that happens quite often on a burglary is that you can get the case reduced to a trespass case. When someone enters the home or enters the building, that’s when you had to have the intent to commit, let’s say, a theft. It’s not uncommon for somebody to enter a building because your car broke down and it’s late at night, or you’re just trying to locate somebody to help you and so you knock, no one comes in and you holler, you go into a barn; you’re going to sleep in the barn. So you enter the barn. You may then get charged with burglary of the building, but you had no intent to commit a theft. What you did was a trespass, which is a misdemeanor. We need to always look to see whether or not our client is correctly charged with a burglary, when in fact it just might be a misdemeanor trespass.