When you or a loved one is accused of burglary of a safe or vault in California, you deal with one of the most serious theft crimes under California Penal Code 464. Unlike general burglary under PC 459, PC 464 specifically applies when explosives or torches are used to break into safes, vaults, or secure containers.
A conviction of a Penal Code 464 violation is a felony, imposes a lengthy state prison term, and is considered a “strike” against you. The defining feature of burglary of a safe or vault is the desire to rob and the particular, risky ways to break into a locked container. Owing to the risks involved, prosecutors pursue these charges aggressively.
For an effective and solid defense strategy, you should understand the exact nature of a Penal Code 464 charge and seek an experienced criminal attorney. At Pasadena Criminal Attorney, we will explain what a prosecutor needs to establish, the possible punishment if found guilty, and the legal defenses we may use to challenge PC 464 charges against you.
What Is Burglary of a Safe or Vault per California PC 464?
California Penal Code 464 punishes breaking into a building intending to commit a crime and then breaking or attempting to break into a safe, a vault, or any other secure area by using a torch or explosives. The law is specific in that it is the act of safe-blowing or safecracking using equipment capable of burning through steel or concrete. This attention to the process distinguishes a Penal Code 464 charge from the other burglary crimes.
Note that a conviction does not require a successful theft. An attempt is equally punished by the law as much as an actual act. You can be convicted of the offense even if you never open the vault door or take what is inside the safe when caught using a cutting torch on the door. This renders a Penal Code 464 violation a serious case to respond to on the part of any defendant because the prosecution does not have to demonstrate that you obtained any property.
Elements a Prosecutor Must Establish Before Securing Your Conviction
To ensure the court convicts you of a safe or vault burglary, the prosecutor must prove four elements beyond a reasonable doubt. The inability to establish any of these factors is fatal to the charge. Your defense strategy will focus on raising doubt about one or more of these critical elements of the prosecution’s case.
Entry into a Building
To begin with, the prosecutor should prove that you physically forced your way into a building. The law is expansive in this case and includes any building, be it a commercial bank, a retail store, or a home.
It is also not important whether the building was occupied at the time or whether the entry was made during the day or at night. The point is that you have to have passed the entrance of the building. However, this statute would not cover using a torch on a safe outdoors. This aspect may be proved by surveillance video, eyewitness accounts, or forensic evidence, which puts you on the premises.
Particular Intent to Commit a Crime
The prosecution has to demonstrate your state of mind next. It is not sufficient that you got into a building and then chose to commit a crime. In Penal Code 464, you should have had the special intent to commit a crime, for example, stealing, at the moment of entry. It is a significant difference.
In a case where you entered a building because of a lawful purpose or even to commit a minor offense, such as trespassing, and then later you developed the thought to break into the safe, then you have not committed burglary according to this law.
It can be challenging to establish that at that exact time you were intending to do something, and a prosecutor may be forced to turn to circumstantial evidence, like the fact that when you entered the premises, you had special tools, and this is what the prosecutor can use to his or her advantage.
An Attempt to Enter a Safe, Vault, or Other Secure Place
The third element brings attention to your activities within the building. The prosecution must prove that you opened or, more likely, tried to open a safe, vault, or any other secure place. Therefore, a secure place is not strictly defined by law and is a common issue of legal debate. Although a bank vault or a safe on a commercial floor is obviously a safe, the word is unclear regarding other storage places.
A locked filing cabinet or the typical cash register might not qualify as a secure place as required by law to keep valuables out of reach of forceful intrusion. A good defense lawyer will examine the nature of the container you supposedly attacked to say that it is not what the legislature meant to cover by this harsh law.
Use of a Torch or Explosives
The prosecution should demonstrate that you used specific tools to break into the secure container. Specifically, the law enumerates such devices as an acetylene torch, electric arc, burning bar, thermal lance, or oxygen lance. It also contains dynamite, nitroglycerin, gunpowder, or any other explosive. The law is meant to penalize the application of tools that bring significant harm and destruction.
This aspect offers you one of the best lines of defense. If you used a crowbar, a sledgehammer, a drill, or lock-picking implements to attack the safe, you have not violated Penal Code 464. Although you may be charged with general burglary under Penal Code 459, you would not be subjected to the specifically harsh penalties of this law. The distinction between a pry bar and a cutting torch is, in the view of this law, the distinction between years of your life.
Potential Sentences Upon a Penal Code 464 Conviction
You should not underestimate the seriousness of a conviction under Penal Code 464. The repercussions are life-changing and far more than the time spent in prison. The legislature has prescribed the crime an exceptionally severe punishment because the act is sophisticated and dangerous.
State Prison and Felony Classification
In California, burglary of a safe or vault is a felony. It is not a wobbler that can be minimized to a misdemeanor, as with most other crimes. If convicted, you face a sentence of three, five, or seven years in state prison. In rare cases, a judge may instead grant felony probation, but this outcome is uncommon for PC 464 convictions.
Your sentencing is based on your case, including the extent of planning, the extent of damages, and your criminal background. Besides jail time, you can be fined up to $10,000. This fine is not in addition to any victim restitution you might pay for stolen property or repairs.
A "Strike" Under the Three Strikes Law
In California, a conviction of burglary of a safe or vault will automatically be a strike under the Three Strike Law of the state. Getting a strike on your record has far-reaching consequences for your future. You will receive a sentence twice that of the new felony if you are found guilty of any other felony.
With three strikes, you may be sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment. The burden of a Penal Code 464 conviction will haunt you throughout the rest of your life, and any subsequent legal complication will be much more perilous.
Collateral Consequences
A Penal Code 464 conviction does not stop when your sentence is finished. In the case of non-U.S. citizens, this crime is treated as an aggravated felony according to the federal law on immigration. A conviction will result in deportation and make you permanently inadmissible to the United States.
Moreover, you will be prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm in California as a convicted felon. This conviction prohibits you from owning or possessing a firearm under California Penal Code 29800. Restoration of rights is minimal and rarely granted.
Lastly, a felony conviction of this scale poses colossal setbacks to your career and life. It may deny you various professional licenses, eliminate your chances of getting a job, and complicate finding a place to live.
The Expungement Possibility of a Penal Code 464 Conviction
Is it possible to ever have a Penal Code 464 conviction removed from your record? Penal Code 464 is a straight felony with a compulsory sentencing triad of three, five, or seven years in the California state prison.
Although a judge has a theoretical discretion to impose formal felony probation instead of a prison sentence, it is a rare result in a crime of this seriousness and sophistication. In most instances, conviction results in a sentence to prison. If sentenced to state prison for PC 464, you are not eligible for expungement under Penal Code 1203.4.
But if you were among the lucky few who received felony probation, an expungement avenue might become available. You must have completed all the terms and conditions of your probation to be eligible. This involves paying all fines and restitution to the victims, attending court-imposed counseling or community service, and not being found guilty of any other crime during probation.
When satisfied with these conditions, your attorney can submit the expungement petition. If the judge grants it, the court will dismiss the case.
Defensive Tactics to a Penal Code 464 Charge
A conviction is never certain, regardless of how serious a Penal Code 464 charge is. The case presented by the prosecution should be airtight, and a well-established criminal defense counsel can point out the flaws, question the evidence, and form a reasonable doubt that can be used to secure the desired result.
The key elements of the prosecution’s case can be dismantled, and your constitutional rights vigorously defended. These are not mere procedural obstacles; they are basic safeguards that may result in a dismissal of charges or complete dismissal of your case.
Lack of Intent
One of the most potent defense strategies is to question the prosecution about how they can prove what was happening in your state of mind. The statute states that you must have had the particular intent to commit a crime when entering the building. This is a very high standard that a prosecutor must pass. The legally relevant factor in this specific element is not what you do after entry. It is usually hard to prove what was in your head at that particular moment, and circumstantial evidence may be subject to interpretation.
For example, consider a situation where you have gone into a deserted commercial building to seek refuge during a storm. After getting in, you find an old, apparently forgotten safe in a back office. Curiosity, or an impulsive, opportunistic urge, causes you to attempt to open it with a scrap of scrap metal you find on the floor.
You might have also committed other crimes, such as trespassing or attempted theft, but did not commit burglary under Penal Code 464. The criminal motive was post hoc, conceived after you had entered. Your lawyer would say that the prosecution cannot show that you had an already formed plan when you first stepped over the threshold. This afterthought-theft defense undermines a fundamental element of the charge, causing the burglary of a safe or vault case to collapse.
The "Wrong Tool" Defense/No Use of a Torch or Explosives
The simplest and, in many cases, the most effective defense against a burglary of a safe or vault case is to demonstrate that the wrong tools were used. Your defense lawyer cuts to the root of what is so unique about this statute. The legislation was not formulated to penalize every forcible intrusion into safes but to focus on the ultimate threat and devastation of thermal cutting apparatus and explosives. The catalog of forbidden implements in the statute is the absolute keystone of the prosecution's case. The tools include:
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Acetylene torch
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Electric arc
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Burning bar
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Thermal lance
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Oxygen lance
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Nitroglycerin
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Dynamite
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Gunpowder
Your defense lawyer will carefully examine the forensic evidence. If the effort to break the safe was done using a crowbar, a sledgehammer, a high-powered drill, a grinder, or advanced lock-picking equipment, then you did not violate Penal Code 464.
Imagine a situation where police arrive at an alarm and discover you standing next to a severely ruined safe, a commercial-grade drill, and several pry bars on the ground. The facts of a possible theft can be overwhelming. However, since none of those tools can burn through steel or blow up, the charge of burglary of a safe or a vault is legally wrong.
This defense compels the prosecutor to dismiss the charge to a typical burglary under Penal Code 459, which has far less severe penalties and is not a strike per se. The 'wrong tool' defense is not a loophole; it reflects the legislature’s intent in drafting Penal Code 464.
The Target Was Not A Safe, Vault, Or Secure Place
The nature of the container targeted can also be used as your defense. The law defines a safe, vault, or other safe location. Such language suggests fortification and a design to guard high-value content against advanced attacks. Not all locked boxes and cabinets meet this standard. It is a subtle legal case that can be extremely powerful when the facts are on its side.
In People v. Cardwell (1994) 21 Cal.App.4th 1468, the court clarified that PC 464 applies to secure containers such as safes or vaults, not simply to exterior building walls. The defendant broke into a Best Buy store through the exterior steel door using a torch in that case. The prosecution accused him of Penal Code 464 because the building was secure. The court of appeal did not agree, as it decided that the statute was to be interpreted to refer to secure containers within a building, but not the exterior shell of a building.
The same principle can be extended to other containers. Is the item you are charged with assaulting a typical office filing cabinet? A padlocked wooden closet? An average retail cash register drawer? Although they are supposed to be locked, your attorney may argue that they lack the construction, materials, or intended use of a safe or vault. This defense disputes the nature of the prosecution's evidence and can prove that the particular, high charge of PC 464 is excessive.
Unlawful Searches and Misconduct
The power of the state is your ultimate defense of constitutional rights. If the police engage in the investigation beyond their legal mandate, any evidence gathered by the police can be excluded in court, which will render the prosecutor's case useless in most cases.
The Fourth Amendment is often the focus of this defense, guaranteeing that you are not subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures. As a rule, police must have a valid search warrant to search an area where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as your house, your garage, or the trunk of your car.
If they warrantlessly searched and discovered the so-called safe-cracking devices, a thermal lance in your car, or explosive devices in your storage unit, this evidence could be illegally acquired. Your attorney can file a Motion to Suppress Evidence under Penal Code 1538.5. Should the judge find the search illegal, the evidence would be excluded, and the prosecution may be left with nothing to show that you used the unlawful tools.
Likewise, your Fifth Amendment rights defend you against self-incrimination. When you are arrested and interrogated by the police, they must read you the Miranda rights. If they do not do so and you confess to the crime or make incriminating statements, the statements can be suppressed.
The same applies to coerced confessions made by threats, intimidation, or false promises of leniency. Forced confession is not admissible evidence. Your attorney makes law enforcement answerable to these constitutional principles by making sure that your case is not prejudiced by shortcuts or misconduct in the procedure.
The Difference Between Penal Code 464 and General Burglary (Penal Code 459)
You should know the difference between Penal Code 464 and the more widespread offense of general burglary under Penal Code 459. PC 459 charge only needs to be entered in a structure to commit a felony or theft. The punishments differ based on whether it was a home (first-degree burglary) or a commercial facility (second-degree burglary). Burglary in the second degree is a wobbler; that is, it can be either a felony or a misdemeanor.
PC 464, in contrast, is never less than a serious felony. It involves the extra aspect of aiming a secure container with a torch or explosives. The possible jail term is much greater and will always leave a mark on your record.
Due to these huge disparities, one of the primary objectives in the defense of the PC 464 case is to bargain with the prosecutor to have the charge dismissed to a general burglary under PC 459. Such a tactical step can significantly change the course of your case, and you may avoid years in state prison and a lifetime strike.
Seek Help from a Theft Crimes Defense Lawyer Near Me
Facing safe or vault burglary charges under PC 464 could jeopardize your freedom and future. Since the stakes are high and the law is complicated, the prosecution will build a solid case against you. The most important decision you can make is to exercise your right to be silent and consult professional legal advice immediately. Do not attempt to defend yourself to the police or face the court alone. The case against you can be built upon every word you say.
The nature of a PC 464 charge, such as the intent that must have been present at the time of entry and the exact definition of the tools used, offers prospects of an expert defense. A skilled criminal lawyer will examine all facts, question all evidence, and defend your rights at all levels.
Call the Pasadena Criminal Attorney at 626-689-2277 for a confidential consultation. Our professional lawyers are ready to protect your rights and fight the charges you face.
