Criminal Damage to Property in Louisiana: Penalties and Defenses

Criminal damage to property in Louisiana is the intentional destruction of someone else’s property without their consent, and the penalty depends almost entirely on three things: how much damage you caused in dollars, whether human life was foreseeably endangered, and whether you used fire or explosives. Damage under $1,000 by ordinary means is a misdemeanor. At $1,000 or more, it becomes a felony carrying possible time at hard labor. If lives were at risk, or if fire or explosives were involved, the charge shifts to a different statute with much harsher penalties.

Simple Criminal Damage Under RS 14:56

Louisiana Revised Statute 14:56 defines simple criminal damage as intentionally damaging another person’s property without consent, by any means other than fire or explosion.¹ The prosecution must prove the damage was intentional. Backing into a fence, breaking a window with an errant ball, or damaging something through ordinary carelessness does not qualify.

The statute reads “property of another” broadly. Partial ownership does not authorize you to destroy the whole thing, so a co-owner who trashes shared property can still be charged. The statute also covers tenants who intentionally damage a rental dwelling, meaning a landlord can pursue criminal charges alongside eviction.¹

Penalties break into three tiers based on the value of the damage:

Under $1,000: up to a $1,000 fine, up to six months in jail, or both. Misdemeanor.
$1,000 to under $50,000: up to a $1,000 fine, up to two years in prison with or without hard labor, or both.
$50,000 or more: up to a $10,000 fine, one to ten years in prison with or without hard labor, or both.

The felony line sits at $1,000. Louisiana defines a felony as any crime where the offender may be sentenced to death or imprisonment at hard labor.² Because the second tier authorizes hard labor, crossing $1,000 puts a felony on your record.

One rule catches people by surprise. When multiple properties are damaged as part of a continuous sequence of events, Louisiana adds the values together to determine the charge level.¹ Five broken car windows at $200 apiece is a $1,000 felony, not five separate misdemeanors.

When Damage Endangers Human Life

RS 14:55 covers aggravated criminal damage: intentionally damaging a structure, watercraft, or movable when it is foreseeable that human life might be endangered.³ The question is whether a reasonable person in your position would have recognized the risk to people. Cutting brake lines, damaging load-bearing walls of an occupied building, or wrecking emergency equipment where people are present can all fit.

The penalty does not scale with the dollar amount. It is up to a $10,000 fine, one to fifteen years in prison with or without hard labor, or both, whether the property damage was $500 or $500,000.³ What matters is the danger to people, not the size of the repair bill.

Fire and Explosives Are Not Charged Under These Statutes

Both simple and aggravated criminal damage statutes explicitly exclude fire and explosives. If you damage property by setting a fire or using an explosive, you are not facing a criminal damage charge. You are facing arson, and the penalties are markedly heavier.

Aggravated arson under RS 14:51 applies when fire or an explosive damages property and human life could foreseeably be endangered. Penalties run six to twenty years at hard labor and a fine up to $25,000, with the first two years served without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.⁴ Compared to the one-to-fifteen-year range for aggravated criminal damage, the difference is substantial.

Simple arson under RS 14:52 covers fire or explosives used on another’s property without consent when no one’s life is foreseeably at risk. It also reaches fires started during another felony, even without intent to start the fire. Damage of $500 or more brings up to a $15,000 fine and up to fifteen years at hard labor; damage under $500 brings up to a $2,500 fine or up to five years with or without hard labor, or both.⁵ Even the lower tier is a felony.

Graffiti Has Its Own Statute and Its Own Numbers

RS 14:56.4 treats defacement with graffiti separately. It covers painting, marking, scratching, drawing, or etching on property without permission, publicly or privately owned, where the marking is visible to the general public.⁶

The threshold between misdemeanor and felony is $500 for graffiti, not the $1,000 line that applies to general criminal damage:

Under $500: up to a $500 fine, up to six months in parish jail, or both.
$500 to under $50,000: up to a $1,000 fine, up to two years with or without hard labor, or both.
$50,000 or more: up to a $10,000 fine, one to ten years with or without hard labor, or both.

The court can also order cleanup, repair, or replacement of the property and restitution to the owner. Community service runs up to 32 hours for a first conviction and 64 hours for a second or later conviction.⁶ If a minor is convicted and cannot pay the fine or restitution, the court can hold the parent or guardian financially responsible.

Graffiti on a historic building or landmark is prosecuted under RS 14:56.5, which brings a fine up to $1,000 and up to two years with or without hard labor, regardless of the damage amount. Community service is mandatory and cannot be suspended.⁷

Restitution and Civil Liability

Fines and jail time are not the end of the financial exposure. Under RS 14:56, a judge can order a convicted offender to pay full restitution to the owner, and if the offender cannot pay at sentencing, the court sets a periodic payment schedule based on ability to pay.¹

When probation is imposed, restitution is mandatory. Louisiana’s Code of Criminal Procedure requires restitution as a probation condition in cases involving loss of cash, monetary loss from damaged or lost property, or medical expenses, set at a specific figure not exceeding the victim’s actual financial loss.⁸

The criminal case does not end the victim’s options. Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315 states that every act of a person that causes damage to another obligates the person at fault to repair it, and recoverable damages include sales taxes paid on repairing or replacing the property.⁹ The civil suit uses the lower “more likely than not” standard, so an acquittal in criminal court does not prevent a civil judgment. Criminal restitution can offset a civil award but does not bar the lawsuit.

How Long Prosecutors Have to File

Louisiana’s Code of Criminal Procedure Article 572 sets deadlines that vary with the level of the offense:¹⁰

Felony with mandatory hard labor: six years.
Felony without mandatory hard labor: four years.
Misdemeanor with possible jail time: two years.
Misdemeanor punishable only by fine: six months.

Applied to these charges: simple criminal damage under $1,000 must be filed within two years. Simple criminal damage between $1,000 and $50,000, where hard labor is possible but not mandatory, gives prosecutors four years. Aggravated criminal damage, where hard labor is mandatory, carries a six-year window. Miss the deadline and the case cannot go forward.

Defenses That Can Defeat the Charge

Every criminal damage charge in Louisiana requires proof of intentional conduct and lack of consent. Those two elements open the door to real defenses.

Lack of intent is the most direct. Accidental damage, damage from ordinary negligence, or damage you did not cause purposely does not meet the statute. The prosecution has to show you meant to do it.

Owner consent defeats the charge. If the owner authorized you to alter, demolish, or modify the property, the “without consent” element is missing. Written agreements are easiest to prove, but verbal consent counts when it can be established.

Mistake of fact applies when you genuinely and reasonably believed the property was yours. Demolishing a shed you thought sat on your land, when the boundary actually placed it on your neighbor’s lot, can negate intent. The mistake must be both honest and reasonable. Being told repeatedly you were wrong and doing it anyway will not carry the defense.

Necessity may apply when damage was required to prevent a greater harm and no reasonable alternative existed. Breaking a car window to rescue a child in the heat, or breaking down a door to reach someone in a fire, can fit. The harm avoided has to outweigh the damage caused, and the response has to be proportionate to the emergency.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:56 – Simple Criminal Damage to Property
2
FindLaw. Louisiana Revised Statutes Tit. 14, Sect. 2 – Definitions
3
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:55 – Aggravated Criminal Damage to Property
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:51 – Aggravated Arson
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:52 – Simple Arson
6
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:56.4 – Criminal Damage to Property by Defacing With Graffiti
7
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:56.5 – Criminal Damage to Historic Buildings or Landmarks by Defacing With Graffiti
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 895.1 – Conditions of Probation
9
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Civil Code Art. 2315 – Liability for Acts Causing Damages
10
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 572 – Limitation of Prosecution of Noncapital Offenses