What Is Aggravated Criminal Damage to Property in Louisiana?

Aggravated criminal damage to property in Louisiana is a felony under Revised Statute 14:55. It applies when a person intentionally damages a structure, watercraft, or movable by any means other than fire or explosion, under circumstances where it is foreseeable that human life might be endangered. A conviction carries one to fifteen years in prison, with or without hard labor, and a fine of up to $10,000.¹

The Three Elements the State Must Prove

Every conviction under R.S. 14:55 rests on three pieces: intentional conduct, a qualifying method, and foreseeable danger to a person. Each one is a place a case can fall apart.

Intentional Damage

The destruction has to be deliberate. Louisiana’s criminal intent statute, R.S. 14:10, draws a line between specific intent, where the defendant actively wanted the harmful result, and general intent, where a reasonable person would have seen the damage as nearly certain to follow from the act.² Accidents and ordinary carelessness don’t meet either standard. A worker whose equipment slips and clips a neighboring wall has a real argument that the intent element isn’t there. Someone who swings a sledgehammer at an occupied building does not.

Any Means Other Than Fire or Explosion

The statute covers almost every method of destruction: driving a vehicle into a building, flooding a space, demolishing walls with tools, smashing equipment with machinery. What it does not cover is fire or explosives. Those methods push the case into Louisiana’s arson statutes instead, which have their own elements and heavier penalties.

The property itself can be a structure (buildings like homes, businesses, and warehouses), a watercraft, or a movable (vehicles, equipment, and other personal property not fixed to land).¹

Foreseeable Danger to Human Life

This is the element that turns property destruction into an aggravated felony. The state does not have to show that anyone was actually injured, or even present. The question is whether a reasonable person in the defendant’s position would have anticipated that the act could put someone in physical danger.¹

Foreseeability is judged objectively. A defendant’s personal belief that nobody was around doesn’t settle the question if the circumstances said otherwise. Prosecutors lean on facts like the time of day, the type of property, its location in a populated area, and whether people were known to use the space. Hitting infrastructure such as gas lines, electrical systems, or load-bearing walls almost always satisfies the test because the resulting hazards radiate outward. Damaging an abandoned shed on remote farmland with no one for miles presents a much weaker case for the state.

Penalties on Conviction

R.S. 14:55 authorizes imprisonment for one to fifteen years, with or without hard labor, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.¹ The “with or without hard labor” language is a sentencing choice. Hard labor sends the defendant to a state correctional facility under the Department of Corrections; a sentence without hard labor can be served in a parish jail.

Unlike some Louisiana felonies, this statute does not require any part of the sentence to be served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension. The court has room to work with. A first-time defendant whose conduct was on the lower end may land near the one-year floor, while serious damage to an occupied building usually draws something closer to the top of the range. That same flexibility is why plea negotiations are possible here in ways they aren’t under statutes with built-in mandatory minimums.

A judge may also order restitution to the property owner. Restitution is discretionary, not automatic, and if the defendant cannot pay in full at sentencing the court can set a periodic payment plan based on ability to pay.³ Restitution is separate from any fine paid to the state and does not stop the victim from pursuing a civil suit. Homeowner’s and renter’s policies almost universally exclude losses caused by the policyholder’s own intentional criminal acts, so insurance generally will not cover the payment.

How It Differs From Simple Criminal Damage

Simple criminal damage to property under R.S. 14:56 covers intentional destruction where endangering human life was not foreseeable. The penalties scale with the dollar value of the damage rather than the risk to people:³

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

The difference matters. Simple criminal damage under $1,000 is a misdemeanor capped at six months. The aggravated charge starts at one year and reaches fifteen regardless of the dollar amount. Two people can cause the same financial loss, but the one whose conduct put someone at foreseeable risk faces a far harsher outcome. That’s also the pressure point in many plea negotiations.

How It Differs From Arson

The method of destruction draws the line between R.S. 14:55 and the arson statutes. If fire or explosives were used, the case is not aggravated criminal damage. Aggravated arson under R.S. 14:51 carries six to twenty years at hard labor and a fine of up to $25,000, and at least two years must be served without parole, probation, or suspension.⁴ The heavier penalty reflects how fire and explosions behave: they spread, they are hard to contain, and they tend to cause catastrophic harm.

Defenses That Can Apply

Louisiana’s justification statute, R.S. 14:18, recognizes a complete defense in several situations, including conduct authorized by law, reasonable defense of self or property, and acts committed under immediate threat of death or great bodily harm where the defendant reasonably believed the threat was real.⁵

Beyond statutory justification, defense strategies in these cases usually run along a few lines. Lack of intent is often the strongest because the statute requires intentional conduct; evidence of accident or negligence undercuts the charge entirely. Attacking the foreseeability element can reduce an aggravated charge to simple criminal damage when the property was in a remote or clearly unoccupied setting. Consent or ownership can defeat a simple damage charge under R.S. 14:56, which requires that the act be done “without the consent of the owner,” though damaging your own property in a way that foreseeably endangers others can still support an aggravated charge. Duress is available where the defendant can show an immediate threat and no reasonable chance to escape it.

Collateral Consequences of a Felony Conviction

Prison and fines are only the start. Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment from possessing firearms or ammunition, and since R.S. 14:55 reaches fifteen years the ban attaches automatically on conviction.⁶ Louisiana adds its own firearm prohibition under R.S. 14:95.1 for certain enumerated felonies, including crimes of violence, and violating that state ban is punishable by an additional five to twenty years at hard labor.⁷

Expungement Eligibility

Aggravated criminal damage to property is one of a limited number of Louisiana felonies specifically eligible for expungement. Under Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 978, a person convicted under R.S. 14:55 can petition for expungement once ten years have passed since completion of the sentence, probation, or parole. Expungement does not erase the conviction, but it removes it from most public background checks, which can meaningfully change what employment and housing look like afterward.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 RS 14-55 – Aggravated Criminal Damage to Property
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statute 14-10 – Criminal Intent
3
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 RS 14-56 – Simple Criminal Damage to Property
4
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 RS 14-51 – Aggravated Arson
5
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statute 14-18 – Justification; General Provisions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statute 14-95.1 – Possession of Firearm or Carrying Concealed Weapon by a Person Convicted of Certain Felonies