Committee amends burglary law to allow inference of criminal intent, reports bill to full Senate

A Senate committee voted to report the committee substitute for Senate Bill 864 to the full Senate, as amended. The substitute revises the state's burglary code to add language about an individual's unlawful presence in a dwelling and to clarify what must be alleged in an indictment for burglary.

Committee counsel explained the substitute to members: "[T]he committee substitute ... is to the crime of burglary. You'll see that in subsection d, we just add a statutory, person's, presence, in a dwelling house that is unlawful when the presence is unlawful. And then in subsection e is just clarifying that in an indictment for burglary, that to be, alleged crime that the person may have intended to commit is not required to be set forth in that indictment." The counsel also read the dwelling-house definition, saying it "includes, but is not limited to, a mobile home, house trailer, module, or home…