TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Feb 19, 2020

The Tennessee Supreme Court has clarified the language of the state’s burglary statute to allow its application to a criminal defendant who enters a retail store — from which they previously had been banned — and commits a theft. The decision came in a case involving Abbie Welch, who entered a Walmart retail store to steal merchandise and then have another individual return the merchandise for a gift card. Because she had been banned from the store for prior acts of shoplifting, the state argued she should be charged with burglary rather than criminal trespass. The court agreed, saying the burglary statute is properly applied to defendants who enter a store without the effective consent of the owner and commit a theft.