Real Truth Behind Robbery Cases In California
There are many ways to be charged with robbery under California Penal Code Section 211. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be convicted of robbery.
You want to avoid that robbery conviction in Los Angeles because here in California, we have the three-strikes law. Any sentence for theft is a strike, which means you have a felony conviction on your record that you can't get off for the rest of your life. That's a horrible punishment if you get these robbery convictions.
The second thing it does is that usually, prosecutors and judges want prison time in these robbery cases, so you don't want that robbery charge because nobody wants to go to prison. Also, because it's a strike and a violent felony, you have to serve 85% of the time you get.
If you get prison time or county jail time, you should expect to serve 85% of that robbery charge. The real truth, though, is that there are a lot of ways to get rid of the robbery charge. Sometimes, you're charged with robbery—maybe you grabbed somebody's purse and ran away. That's what's called a strong-arm robbery.
It's still just as impactful as an armed robbery with a gun. It still hurts; it's still a robbery, and you're still looking at prison time.
But many times—especially if you don't have a record, nobody got hurt, and the property was recovered—you can get rid of that robbery charge and get a grand theft, for example. Penal Code Section 487c. That's not a strike. That's not a violent felony, and you're in a much better position if you get that versus a robbery charge.
Reducing Charges to a Lesser Offense
Also, sometimes, there's a defense to the robbery charge that you could utilize depending on the circumstances of your robbery case. So, what I think the most vicious punishments are related to robberies is when you endanger people's lives, people get hurt, or a gun is used.
If you commit a robbery with a gun, you have a real problem because there's a ten-year enhancement in Los Angeles County relating to robberies when a weapon is involved.
Now, there are ways to get around that enhancement, but they're not easy, and it's going to take a really smart criminal defense attorney who knows how to work these cases, how to investigate them, and what evidence the prosecutors will consider in downgrading your robbery charge to something less serious.
So, the absolute truth about robbery cases is that they're very impactful in your life if you get one, but there are also ways to get rid of them and avoid having to plead to a robbery. If you can't get a complete not-guilty verdict because you don't have the facts, you must get the mitigating factors out there.
Your attorney has to meet with and talk to the head DA in whatever courthouse your case is pending, lay out some of the factors that help you, and clarify that you shouldn't have this stigma attached to a robbery charge.
The way to do that is through hard work, such as pre-filing intervention, character letters, and also getting your client's version of events out to the prosecutor so that they know all of the facts and details and not just the one-sided investigation that the police usually do and not just a statement of the alleged victim.
Sometimes, the alleged victim is mad, embellishes, and adds things. They decide they're going to get the person who robbed them in Los Angeles, so they're going to add a bunch of mean, horrible stuff about them, which is not fair. Sometimes, we need to do some investigation. Our experienced theft crime lawyers need to get your point of view across so we can end up with the correct result in these robbery cases.
The bottom line, and the absolute truth, is that a robbery charge impacts you for the rest of your life, so you want to avoid it at all costs. If you are going to end up with a robbery charge, you want to do everything you can to avoid going to prison.
