The King County Prosecutor's Office has charged a Seattle man who is alleged to have committed 136 auto thefts throughout the city over a six month period. Police and prosecutors consider him to be the most active and prolific car thief on record in King County.

Liam Moynihan is charged with 25 counts of theft in the first degree for a crime spree that began in November 2005 and ended in May when he was arrested by Seattle Police for stealing a car.

Moynihan, 23, has remained in jail and is awaiting trial on charges of possession of stolen property and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle for the May car theft. Since his arrest, Seattle Police detectives have been developing information on 136 potential cases, which included detectives taking Moynihan on several field trips during which he revealed scores of locations of his alleged car thefts.

The 25 counts filed today already place the defendant at a maximum sentence range of 43 to 57 months in prison, and filing additional counts would not add to the range under state sentencing guidelines. However, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said his office will ask for an exceptional sentence of 10 years in prison if the defendant is convicted. In addition, prosecutors will also seek restitution in all 136 cases.

The case filed today, Maleng said, highlights the need for a renewed effort to go the Washington State Legislature to propose an increase in sentence ranges for auto theft and allow less time off for good behavior, which currently stands at 50 percent. Maleng will ask that a third car theft conviction should result in a prison sentence, or a term that is longer than a year of incarceration. Currently, it takes seven convictions before an individual would go to prison instead of jail for stealing a car.

"We have long believed that when it comes to car thieves that a small number of criminals are responsible for a large percentage of crimes, and this defendant is proof of that theory," Maleng said.
Maleng thanked the Seattle Police Department for its thorough and exhaustive work in developing the numerous cases for prosecution.

A year ago, Maleng formed the King County Prosecutor's Office's Car Theft Initiative, a prosecution unit which gives car thefts a higher priority in the criminal justice system and allows prosecutors to work more closely with police in developing cases for prosecution.

In the past 12 months, auto thefts in Seattle alone have dropped 30 percent, while the number of auto thieves prosecuted has increased by 28 percent. The Car Theft Initiative also has a top ten list of car thieves, a list that includes Moynihan.

Moynihan is currently being held in the King County Jail on $150,000. He will be arraigned on October 11 at the King County Courthouse, 8:30 a.m. in courtroom 1201.

Dated: October 10, 2006