People v. Perry

Michael Perry (defendant) and his family stayed at an Embassy Suites hotel for months under a discounted long-stay rate, providing a credit card in someone else's name and falsely claiming to be a company president who would have the stay billed to a nonexistent corporation. The hotel was never paid, and Perry's family vacated owing more than $15,000. Perry was convicted of felony theft by deception, but the court of appeal held that hotel-room occupancy was not "property" under the theft statute and reclassified the offense as a lesser felony based only on non-occupancy charges. The State appealed.