## Facts

- Robin Lukas was indicted in New Hampshire for theft by unauthorized taking under RSA 637:3.
- The State charged the theft as a class B felony under RSA 637:11, II(b), which provides that a third theft offense must be prosecuted as a class B felony regardless of the value of the property.
- To treat Lukas’s charged theft as a third offense, the prosecutor relied on two prior theft convictions Lukas had received in another state.
- Lukas moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that out-of-state theft convictions could not be used as predicate theft offenses under RSA 637:11, II(b).
- The Superior Court denied the motion to dismiss, and Lukas appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether prior out-of-state theft convictions may be used as predicate theft offenses under RSA 637:11, II(b) so that a defendant’s third theft offense in New Hampshire may be charged as a class B felony.

## Decision

- The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed.
- The court held that qualifying prior theft convictions from other jurisdictions may be used as predicate offenses under RSA 637:11, II(b).
- The court concluded that the statutory definitions of “felony” and “class A misdemeanor” in RSA 625:9 include crimes designated or defined outside New Hampshire’s criminal code, so out-of-state theft convictions can satisfy RSA 637:11, II(b) when they meet those definitions.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory interpretation presents a question of law reviewed de novo.
- New Hampshire courts interpret criminal statutes according to the fair import of their terms and to further justice, rather than applying a strict-construction rule in favor of defendants.
- When statutory language is clear, courts apply the plain meaning and do not rewrite a statute by adding limiting words the legislature did not include.
- Under RSA 637:11, II(b), a theft may be charged as a class B felony based on two prior theft convictions that qualify as either felonies or class A misdemeanors.
- Under RSA 625:9, the definitions of “felony” and “class A misdemeanor” include crimes designated “within or outside this code” and crimes “defined outside of this code,” which reaches offenses from other states when their maximum authorized penalties match the statutory thresholds.
- A defendant’s reliance on the general idea that convictions have no effect beyond the convicting jurisdiction fails where the legislature has provided clear statutory language authorizing use of out-of-state convictions.
- The existence of other New Hampshire statutes that expressly refer to out-of-state convictions does not override the plain text of RSA 637:11, II(b) read together with RSA 625:9.

## Conclusion

The New Hampshire Supreme Court held that RSA 637:11, II(b) allows the State to rely on qualifying theft convictions from other states as predicate offenses, and it therefore affirmed the denial of Lukas’s motion to dismiss the class B felony theft indictment.


State v. Lukas, 164 N.H. 601 (2013)