State v. Coats

BRODY, Justice.

The malicious ingenuity of thieves is boundless. While the Legislature regularly passes new criminal laws in an effort to keep up with new scams in the electronic age, the question presented in this case is whether the State's good, old-fashioned charge of "theft" fits the thief's conduct. Shawn Coats, the defendant, was charged with eight different offenses after he took an elderly man's debit card and deposited fraudulent checks into the man's credit union account to create funds for a multi-day shopping spree at Walmart.

*897 After a jury trial, he was convicted of seven of the…