## Facts

- Police conducted a decoy operation in which an officer lay face-down in the street posing as an incapacitated person and carried a wallet containing several hundred dollars in marked bills.
- Raymond Walker approached the officer, asked what was wrong, and received no response.
- Walker removed the wallet from the officer and left the scene.
- Walker was apprehended nearby with the wallet and admitted taking it.
- Walker argued he lacked the specific intent for theft because he believed the officer was dead and therefore thought he was not stealing from a living “person.”
- Walker was convicted of theft in the trial court.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant’s belief that the victim is dead negates the specific intent to “permanently deprive” required for theft.
2. Whether taking property from a person believed to be dead can constitute theft because the property remains “another’s” property.

## Decision

- The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed Walker’s theft conviction.
- The court held that Walker’s asserted belief that the victim was dead did not defeat the specific intent element of theft.
- The evidence supported an inference that Walker intended to take and keep property he knew was not his.

## Legal Principles

- Theft is established when a defendant knowingly obtains or exercises control over another’s property without authorization and with intent to permanently deprive the owner of its use or benefit.
- Property associated with a deceased person remains “another’s property” for theft purposes (e.g., belonging to the person, the estate, or successors), and is not rendered ownerless by death.
- A mistaken belief about legal consequences of death on ownership does not excuse the taking and does not negate theft intent where the defendant intended to appropriate property as his own.
- Intent to steal may be inferred from conduct, including taking valuables and leaving rather than seeking aid or contacting authorities.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Walker’s theft conviction because the relevant mens rea was his intent to appropriate property he knew was not his and to keep it, and that intent was not negated by his claimed belief that the apparent victim was dead.


People v. Walker, 44 Colo. App. 249 (Colo. App. 1980)