Marsh v. Commonwealth

Bernard Marsh admitted to Rhonda Gazda that he had taken and pawned jewelry from her jewelry box because he needed money, promising to retrieve it the next day once he was paid; Gazda reported the jewelry stolen, and Marsh later returned some items to police but said he needed more time to save the roughly $3,272.50 required to redeem the rest. After three weeks without full return, police retrieved and returned the remaining jewelry to Gazda, and the Commonwealth charged Marsh with grand larceny. At trial, Marsh testified he acted out of financial trouble while working a carpentry job paying only $2,000 total, much of it already owed on other bills; he moved to strike the charge for insufficient evidence of intent to permanently deprive Gazda of the jewelry, the trial court denied the motion, and a jury convicted him.