There's a lot of drive-by shooting cases throughout Los Angeles county. Unfortunately, when somebody gets arrested and prosecuted for a drive-by shooting under California Penal Code 26100, they're usually looking at some serious time in custody.
The reason for this is because whenever you're shooting at somebody, the prosecutors are going to charge you with attempted murder.
So, in order to avoid this, you're going to obviously, have to not be the shooter in the case and not be aiding and abetting the shooter.
Gang Allegations
Where this starts to get tricky and more complicated is when there are gang allegations. Because when a group of gang members gets together and goes out together, and everybody knows that some of the people are armed in the car.
Even the driver of that car is going to be charged with attempted murder if a drive-by shooting occurs. So, you really have to have an idea of what type of a case it is and where your client fits within that case.
In other words, is it a case where you're going to be defending the case and taking it to jury trial and saying your client didn't have anything to do with the shooting?
In that case, obviously, you're going to have to show that your client is not a gang member, not operating with the gang when the shooting occurs.
And on the flip side, if your client was involved, then you're going to want to mitigate things. Hopefully, it's your client's first offense.
Hopefully, your client wasn't the shooter. These are the type of considerations that criminal defense attorneys have when defending these drive-by shooting cases in Los Angeles.
Penalties for PC 26100 Drive-by Shooting
Some of the crimes that flow from a drive-by shooting case would be, obviously:
- attempted murder, where you're looking at fifteen to life;
- they will also put a gang allegation on there if they can show that the shooting was for the benefit and at the direction of a criminal street gang, which is a 10-year enhancement;
- then, if during the shooting, somebody actually gets hit with a bullet, that is a 25-year enhancement that will be tacked onto the back of the case.
And then, of course, there's any other charges that would apply based on the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.
So, you start to get the idea that these drive-by shooting cases in Los Angeles county are probably some of the most harshly punished crimes that we see.
In fact, if somebody dies, they're obviously going to charge everybody with murder, especially if it's a gang case, and then the person will basically be looking at the rest of their life in prison.
Criminal Defense for California Drive-by Shooting Charges
So, if you or a loved one is charged in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles county, the experience that I can tell you that I have is that I've done over 200 jury trials.
I've been a criminal defense attorney defending these types of cases now for the past 27 years. I know how the other side views these cases and how they investigate them.
The prosecutors usually put their best prosecutors to deal with the case and the police usually put robbery/homicide, their best police officers on these cases.
So, they're going to do a top-level investigation typically, and they're going to treat these cases very harshly because of the impact to society when people are firing weapons, because a lot of times innocent people are hit.
I also worked for a Superior Court judge early in my career as his right-hand man, so that gave me a good idea of how judges view cases, how they decide them.
I can use that experience in dealing with the judge on any legal issues or trying to resolve the case, or obviously, during a jury trial if that's what we decide to do.
So, when it comes to a drive-by shooting, you've got to have an attorney, in my opinion, who has the dual ability to fight a case at a jury trial, if necessary.
Also, to negotiate with the prosecutor's top brass because that's who they're going to have to negotiate with if that's the route we chose to take.
Then of course, you've got to have the experience and know-how to figure out which is the best course of action, talk to your client about, make sure they're on-board with it and do everything you possibly can to get the best resolution.
So, if you or a loved one has a drive-by shooting in LA county, pick up the phone. Ask for a meeting with Ron Hedding. I stand at the ready to help you.
Hedding Law Firm is a criminal defense law firm located in Los Angeles County at 16000 Ventura Blvd #1208 Encino, CA 91436.
We serve clients throughout all Southern California Courts, including LA County, Orange County, Ventura County, Torrance, West Covina, San Fernando Valley, Riverside, and San Bernardino. Contact us for a free case evaluation at (213) 542-0979.
