People v. Thomas

Defendant, the co-owner of a medical supply company, was accused of fraudulent Medicaid billing and after a bench trial was found guilty of theft based on the exertion of unauthorized control over the property of another, theft based on deception, and vendor fraud. The trial court merged the vendor fraud count into the theft by deception count and imposed concurrent prison terms of six years for theft by unauthorized control and six years for theft by deception. On appeal, defendant challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and argued that one of two theft convictions should be vacated under the one-act, one-crime doctrine. The appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded to the trial court to determine which of each defendant’s two convictions, which the parties agreed were for the same criminal act, should stand, and to reduce the remaining conviction to a Class 1 felony because the State failed to prove the theft of governmental property. (MITCHELL and ODEN JOHNSON, concurring)