State v. Wilson

Keith and Evelyn Wilson (defendants) staged a burglary in April 1992 and collected an insurance payout in October 1992. In September 1995, their children told a deputy sheriff the burglary was faked; a search confirmed the supposedly stolen property was still in the home. The Wilsons were charged with theft by taking and theft by deception in January 1996, more than three years after the crime. They moved to dismiss under Iowa's three-year statute of limitations; the State argued a one-year discovery extension for fraud crimes applied. The trial court dismissed the charges, reasoning the extension applied only if the crime was discovered after the three-year period had already run — and here it hadn't. The State appealed.