Before building a Chantilly robbery defense, it could be critical for you to understand the difference between robbery and theft charges. Robbery arrests often require a form of force, threat, violence, or intimidation from the accused. Theft may or may not be from a person. Robbery is more severe than theft because it involves taking from a person. Crimes are considered more serious when they involve an alleged victim or a person that is afraid, threatened, or intimidated by some type of force. Before trial, it could be beneficial to speak with a distinguished robbery lawyer about the severity of your case.
The type of evidence that a criminal lawyer might compile when building a Chantilly robbery defense. Each case is going to be different, but there is going to be somebody who witnessed the event, knows what happened, and is willing to testify as to what happened. There may also be video evidence with recorded information that could be played back in court.
This video surveillance and any pictures are needed by a defense attorney sooner rather than later. For favorable witnesses, a defense attorney needs to get their statements before they forget or transfer stories to find out who witnessed the event and how it affects the case. They try to gather as much information as possible.
A criminal lawyer begins building a Chantilly robbery defense by gathering the evidence. Depending on what developed in the case and was brought to the commonwealth’s attention, an attorney may want to know:
If a person is charged with theft, they should still consider hiring a criminal lawyer because theft, depending on the amount of the item in question, is a felony. The person could be facing up to 20 years in prison, loss of their civil rights, loss of their right to vote, and loss of their right to carry a weapon in the State of Virginia. They may lose the access that they had to federal programs and assistance. A person’s life could be altered by a felony charge. Even if it is not as serious as what was presented, the person could still end up with multiple years in prison for a theft offense.
When someone is facing a mandatory minimum of five years and up to life in prison, their life is on the line. They need somebody who knows the way the system and the jurisdiction work, how the judges work, what motions may be more or less favorable to them, how likely the person is going to be to win in front of a jury, and the prosecutor’s weaknesses. Only a local lawyer has this insight, which is a huge advantage to the case and to the person’s future.
A criminal lawyer might encourage a person charged with robbery to take a plea deal if the evidence against them seems strong or compelling. Examples of compelling evidence includes video, witnesses, an injured person, and little doubt that could be brought in front of a jury that this person could have committed the crime, it is likely that they may be convicted at trial.
These are deemed risky to take in front of a jury. Since the charge could end up being life in prison, the prosecutor offers a deal to render it to a charge that does not have a mandatory minimum time or may not carry up to life in prison. A lot of factors apply and every case is different, but in certain scenarios, it may be advisable to take a plea deal.
Defense attorneys could work with you in building a Chantilly robbery defense. The Commonwealth’s attorney and the prosecutor are not sure if they are able to prove the element of violence, force, threat or intimidation.
A flaw in the case would potentially cause them to want to charge it down to theft. Another reason could be if it technically fits that description of robbery, but there was no weapon and no threat. Perhaps it was a minor threat and the person was not scared, or the amount of money or item was small or of little value. In these situations where there is a mitigating circumstance, prosecutors might be willing to drop it down to theft.