AUSTIN, Texas — A bill that would make create new criminal penalties for catalytic converter thefts in Texas is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. The Texas House took its final vote on Senate Bill 224, or the "Deputy Darren Almendarez Act," on Tuesday.
On March 31, 2022, Harris County Deputy Darren Almendarez and his wife were grocery shopping in North Houston when he spotted three men attempting to steal a catalytic converter from his truck. When the off-duty deputy confronted them, he was shot.
"We hugged and we kissed each other. He told me he loved me, and that was his last words. There was nothing else," Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez, Darren Almendarez's wife, told KVUE earlier this year.
SB 224, authored by State Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston), would create new criminal penalties for catalytic converter thefts and give prosecutors the flexibility to treat catalytic converter thefts as organized crime.
"We need to give law enforcement and prosecutors more tools, more flexibility to really, you know, have a strict punishment, a very forceful punishment that we hope will serve as a deterrent for crime," Alvarado told KVUE in March.
Depending on the amount of loss caused by the theft, under the bill, catalytic converter theft may be a Class C, B or A misdemeanor (loss of $100 to $2,500); a state jail felony (loss of more than $2,500 but less than $30,000); or a third-degree, second-degree or first-degree felony (loss of $30,000 to $300,000 or more). For a more thorough breakdown, read the enrolled version of the bill.
Following the House's final vote, SB 224 is headed to the governor's desk. If he signs it, it will go into effect immediately.