Cold Case Man Turns up 27 Years After TV Theft From Jewish Center

60 year old Randy Iannacone from Port St. Lucie, Fla. finally decided it was time to own up for a TV theft. There had been a warrant out for his arrest for 27 years since the theft took place in Connecticut from the Norwalk Jewish Center. The man was so determined to admit to the theft that he caught a plane from Miami to Connecticut to reach the local police station.

When the theft took place, no doubt the TV would have been large and heavy as many televisions were nearly 3 decades ago but Iannacone had never been caught despite being custodian for the property at the time.

The amazing thing about the whole incident was that Iannacone still had the letter which told him there was a warrant for his arrest for the theft way back in 1989 except that he only received it at his Florida home in March of this year. It seems it took the police a very long time to find him! Or was it just a slight delay in the USPS delivery system?

This whole incident doesn’t give us much faith in the efficiency of the police forces in this country, especially when Paul Resnick, a Norwalk Police lieutenant, says they do try to serve warrant notices but often the suspects have moved and never receive them and the police never manage to track them down. It doesn’t say much for a police department when it is dependent on people giving themselves up.

The lawyer for Iannacone claims that his client had never been far away after the theft, as he continued to open and notoriously live in Connecticut for 10 years before moving to Florida. It appears that the police identified Iannacone after finding the stolen item with a man who said he bought the TV off Iannacone because he had to pay off a debt.

As Iannacone has admitted to the theft, he will now have to attend court to answer to the charge and decide whether to plead guilty or not guilty. A criminal defense lawyer can help in that determination.

Although Iannacone will be charged in Connecticut, not Florida, this state’s property crime laws are similar. In Florida, if a person commits theft through taking or using another person’s property intentionally whether for a temporary period or permanently there are a variety of possible charges that he or she could face. The first of these is petit theft of the second degree for property that has been stolen that is worth $100 or less that has been stolen. This is classified as a second degree misdemeanor under Florida statute 812.014, which could result in a period in prison lasting 60 days or less and up to a $500 fine.

At this stage it is not clear how the stolen television will be valued but if it ends up at more than $100 but not as much as $300 it could be petit theft of the 1st degree which is punishable as a misdemeanor of the 1st degree under Florida’s statute 812.014 and could mean a jail term up to 12 months and a $1,000 fine. If the television set is valued at $300 or more, it could be classified as a 3rd degree felony and he would be facing up to 5 years in state prison.

Whatever the charge eventually ends up being in the state that Iannacone stole the T.V., he will need a criminal defense lawyer to help him fight the charges and minimize his penalty. It may just be that a good criminal defense lawyer can get the case dismissed using the statute of limitations effectively or can exclude his statement and challenge the case based on lack of witnesses. The one thing he should not do is appear in criminal court without an attorney.

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If you have any questions about this or any other criminal accusation, call Miami Criminal Defense Lawyer Albert Quirantes at: 305-644-1800 or visit our homepage www.CriminalDefendant.com for a direct link to the office or a text message or a map and directions to our office.