Theft is defined by Texas Penal Code Section 31.03: unlawfully appropriating property with intent to deprive the owner of it.³ The value of the property sets the grade, and at the $30,000-to-$150,000 tier the offense is a felony of the third degree under Section 31.03(e)(5).¹ The punishment range is two to ten years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a fine of up to $10,000.²

Value is defined by Section 31.08 as the fair market value of the property at the time and place of the offense, or, where fair market value cannot be determined, the replacement cost.⁴ At this tier the value question is rarely about a single price tag; it is about what a set of records can prove across a span of time, which is why the totals the State alleges are tested line by line against what the records actually establish.

Theft is one statute with a sliding scale. The same conduct can be charged anywhere from a fine-only ticket to a first-degree felony, and at the felony tiers two things matter most: the total value alleged and whether separate incidents have been added together to reach it.

The value ladder

Section 31.03(e) sets the grade by value:⁵ under $100 is a Class C misdemeanor;⁶ $100 to $750 is a Class B misdemeanor;⁷ $750 to $2,500 is a Class A misdemeanor;⁸ $2,500 to $30,000 is a state jail felony;⁹ $30,000 to $150,000 is the third-degree felony charged here;¹ $150,000 to $300,000 is a second-degree felony; and $300,000 or more is a first-degree felony. Because the tier above and below this one carry materially different prison exposure, the total the State can prove is the heart of the case.

When separate incidents are added together

Aggregation is the usual route to this tier. Under Section 31.09, amounts taken pursuant to one scheme or a continuing course of conduct may be aggregated and charged as a single offense, with the totals added to set the grade.¹⁰ An employee skim over many months, an inventory shortage across a fiscal quarter, or a series of smaller transactions can be combined into one third-degree-felony count, which makes the aggregation theory, the date range, and the alleged total the first things to examine.

When prior theft convictions raise the level

A person's record can lift the grade independent of the dollar amount, and the certified criminal history is reviewed against the indictment to confirm whether the grade the State has charged rests on value, on aggregation, on priors, or on some combination.⁵

Most people charged with a third-degree felony theft have never been in a criminal courtroom before. They are bookkeepers, office managers, longtime employees, and people whose alleged conduct unfolded over a span of months inside a job they held. The accusation often arrives as a forensic audit rather than a single incident, which is its own kind of shock.

Because theft is read as an offense of dishonesty, the consequences follow the person well past the courthouse. A felony conviction reaches the right to vote and to possess a firearm, professional licenses, and the background checks that employers and landlords run. For a noncitizen, a felony theft conviction can carry immigration consequences, including exposure to removal. That exposure, layered on top of a prison range and a restitution demand, is what makes the structure of any resolution so consequential.

The two-to-ten-year range and the $10,000 fine in Section 12.34 are the criminal side of the exposure.² A felony theft conviction is permanent in a way a misdemeanor is not: it reaches civil rights, licensing, and employment, and it reads as an offense of dishonesty in every background check that follows.

Restitution often defines the negotiation at this tier. The complainant, frequently a business, an insurer, or both, is interested in being made whole, and a credible restitution plan can move both the grade analysis and the punishment recommendation. There is usually a parallel civil exposure as well, separate from the criminal case. For some defendants, community supervision is available where a person is eligible under Article 42A.102 and the court and the State agree,¹¹ but whether any particular outcome fits a given case is a fact-specific question answered from the record, not a promise.

A records-based theft case is built out of documents, and what a person does before indictment affects all of them. The most common mistake is explaining the situation to an employer, an auditor, or an investigator without a lawyer present. Those statements are written down and used, and Texas law governs when an accused's statement is admissible and what warnings had to come first.¹²

A few steps help in nearly every case. Preserve every record that bears on the transactions in question, including pay records, bank statements, and any documentation of legitimate transactions caught in the audit. Do not delete anything. Do not move or transfer assets in a way that can be read as concealment. And do not discuss the matter with co-workers or the complainant, which can complicate the case rather than resolve it.

This is general information about how these cases work in Texas. It is not legal advice about any specific case, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

A third-degree felony theft in Bexar County follows a felony path. Knowing the order of events makes the process less frightening and the decision points easier to see.

Arrest, magistration, and intake

Where there is an arrest, the person is brought before a magistrate who gives the statutory warnings and sets bond, ordinarily within 48 hours, under Article 15.17.¹³ The case is referred to the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney's intake division for grand jury presentation.

Grand jury and indictment

A felony proceeds by indictment. The case is presented to a Bexar County grand jury, and where the timing fits, a defense packet can be submitted to the intake division before the grand jury acts.

Filing in a district court and discovery

After indictment the case is assigned to one of the Bexar County felony district courts, which have jurisdiction over felony cases,¹⁴ sitting in the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street.¹⁵ The State's evidence, including the business records, accounting records, and any forensic audit, is produced under the discovery statute, Article 39.14.¹⁶ The case is prosecuted from the Paul Elizondo Tower.¹⁷

Resolution

A felony theft can resolve by dismissal, by a value-tier or aggregation reduction, by a restitution-structured plea, by community supervision where a person is eligible under Article 42A.102,¹¹ or at trial. Which routes are realistic depends on the record.

A records-based felony does not carry a fast administrative clock, but timing decides what evidence survives, what can be presented before indictment, and what options remain.

Third-degree felony theft is rarely about a single video frame. The State's case is built out of business records: bank statements, point-of-sale exports, payroll records, inventory ledgers, internal audit reports, and often a forensic accounting report from an outside firm. Forrest Good PLLC requests each set of records through formal discovery under Article 39.14 and reads them against the indictment's date range and the alleged loss total.¹⁶

The work runs line by line through the aggregation theory under Section 31.09, which permits the State to combine multiple smaller takings into a single offense only where they were committed pursuant to one scheme or continuing course of conduct.¹⁰ The valuation analysis under Section 31.08 is run against the records to test what the State can actually prove versus what it has alleged, with set-offs for items returned and for legitimate transactions caught in the audit net.⁴ Restitution is treated as a parallel track from the first day: the office identifies what a credible payment plan looks like, what assets the person can realistically commit, and what set-offs reduce the demand. Where the timing fits, a grand jury packet lays out the records-level theory in advance of indictment, and any statement given to an auditor or investigator is examined against the warnings that had to precede it.

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 30 to 50 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. The lower end reflects a shorter course of conduct with a contained record; the upper end reflects a multi-year case, a deep forensic audit, an extended aggregation analysis, eight or more district court settings, and a complex restitution structure. The pricing methodology explains how the charging instrument, the evidence load, and the procedural stakes drive the estimate.

The flat fee and what it covers

The starting flat fee is $7,500. It covers grand jury packet preparation and intake-division engagement before indictment where the facts support it; review of the business records, accounting records, and any forensic audit; the Section 31.08 valuation analysis and the Section 31.09 aggregation analysis;¹⁰ every pretrial setting in the assigned district court; full pretrial motion practice including discovery enforcement under Article 39.14;¹⁶ and plea negotiation that includes the restitution structure. The fee shown here is honored while this page is published, consistent with Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 7.02(d).¹⁹

Any work outside the scoped fee is billed at $250 per hour and is disclosed in the written engagement letter before it begins. The engagement letter is the binding contract for the matter.

The first step is a conversation. The initial 30-minute consultation with Forrest Good PLLC is free and is scheduled through the office's Google Booking page. It is the time to walk through any audit report, the records the accusation rests on, and the alleged loss total, and to map out where a records-level defense and a restitution track stand before indictment where the case is still pre-indictment. Bringing those documents makes the half hour far more useful.

No attorney-client relationship is formed until a written engagement letter is signed; the consultation itself carries no obligation.

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