[nojustice]

My nephew (25 yrs old) was originally charged with 2 counts of shooting w/intent to kill, assault w/deadly weapon and eluding a police officer. The altercation took place at a convenience store where he (in his vehicle) and his friend with his wife (in their vehicle) stopped to get gas. Three teen males in another vehicle jumped out and started throwing punches after my nephew asked them "what's up" because they were staring at them. A gentleman (40 yrs old) at another pump came over to help the teen males and my nephew's friend punched him in the face and broke his nose. In the meantime, a tan truck shows up and two more teens jump out and join the fight against my nephew and his friend. My nephew finally goes to his truck and pulls out a pistol and fires shots into the air and then shoots a tire on the teen's car. Then everyone scatters and my nephew's friend leaves and my nephew goes to his truck to leave. As he is walking to his truck, a police officer who was behind the store pulls up with no lights on so my nephew goes ahead and leaves. The police officer then pursues him and he pulls over and is arrested. The older gentlemen says my nephew shot at him and hit him with the gun when it was actually my nephew's friend that broke his nose and he was never hit with the gun. His friend wasn't charged with anything and we can't ask him to testify because he is on probation for assault. We have a criminal attorney and the DA has reduced the charges to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Also, the gentlemen who says he shot at him now says he thinks he just pointed the gun at him, but fired in the air. This is his first offense. They are talking about 8 years probation with a 6 year cap and getting ready to do a PSI. I can't believe they are going to ruin this young man's life with a felony record so he can't even get a decent job because of an altercation in a parking lot where no one was even seriously injured. Is there anything we can do and what are his chances for probation versus prison time?

[cdwjava]

Help him find an attorney.

Keep in mind that you are getting the sanitized version of events (only that which your nephew wants you to know). You were not present and do not know all the circumstances. Whenever there are multipled parties involved, and gunfire, you can be pretty sure that the incident is a tad more involved than one person staring at another.

- Carl