A woman accused of stealing meat from a Sebastian Walmart two years ago was handed a small victory Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
The court ruled the state did not have enough evidence to prove Angela Rosario-Santos stole more than $100 worth of meat from a Sebastian Walmart. Rosario-Santos will face charges of second-degree petit theft instead of first-degree petit theft.
A Walmart security guard claimed he saw Rosario-Santos leave the store with a shopping cart full of paid and unpaid items on March 17, 2015, according to court records. The photo a responding police officer took shows the cart filled with meat, but records reveal there were no price tags.
The prosecutor admitted she did not have time to look closely at the photo, the record states. She told the jury during the trial to “use their common sense” to determine that the value of the meat may add up to more than $100.
The court ruled the state provided no evidence of the value of the stolen items and the photo did not support a conviction of first-degree theft, which requires the value of the stolen property to be between $100 and $300. She faces a new, lower charge of second-degree petit theft and will appear before a judge in August for arraignment.
