Charges for Being an Accomplice to a Burglary

My question involves criminal law for the state of: CA.

My son who is a 20 year old nerd, drove two guys to the one guys girlfriends house and it turns out the other two broke into her house to steal something called wax and a TV. My son drove them but stayed in the car. He was unsure originally what they were doing and when it became clear what they were going to do they intimidated him and he was afraid and went along he has always been a geeky nerd and felt like he couldn't walk away. He entered the apartment to tell them to leave and the one kid handed him the tv and said it was his. My son carried it and told them he was leaving and didn't want to be there and the police showed up. The other two ran and my son Cried. Told the truth and fully cooperated. He's being charged with residential burglary by the DA. We got an attorney who isn't telling us much about what is going on. He said that because he confessed he more than likely will have a felony and jail time. Mayb prison. There are no priors. He's a good college kid. Has Letters of reference. He looks like apple pie all American doesn't drink do drags. Smoke and is still a.virgin. He's stupid and he was scared. Note the police have the masterminds blood at the crime scene and in my sons car and never went and arrested him. Nor the girls friends mother who was making the narcotic. It's so unfair that my son is left holding the bag when he was just dumb not the criminal. Do you think they will negotiate this down to commercial or petty theft or will he have a strike for life on his record. He's crushed as I am he's a great college student. Volunteers with autistic kids and is truly a big nerdy guy

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Quoting Smichelle

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My question involves criminal law for the state of: CA.

My son who is a 20 year old nerd, drove two guys to the one guys girlfriends house and it turns out the other two broke into her house to steal something called wax and a TV. My son drove them but stayed in the car. He was unsure originally what they were doing and when it became clear what they were going to do they intimidated him and he was afraid and went along he has always been a geeky nerd and felt like he couldn't walk away. He entered the apartment to tell them to leave and the one kid handed him the tv and said it was his. My son carried it and told them he was leaving and didn't want to be there and the police showed up. The other two ran and my son Cried. Told the truth and fully cooperated. He's being charged with residential burglary by the DA. We got an attorney who isn't telling us much about what is going on. He said that because he confessed he more than likely will have a felony and jail time. Mayb prison. There are no priors. He's a good college kid. Has Letters of reference. He looks like apple pie all American doesn't drink do drags. Smoke and is still a.virgin. He's stupid and he was scared. Note the police have the masterminds blood at the crime scene and in my sons car and never went and arrested him. Nor the girls friends mother who was making the narcotic. It's so unfair that my son is left holding the bag when he was just dumb not the criminal. Do you think they will negotiate this down to commercial or petty theft or will he have a strike for life on his record. He's crushed as I am he's a great college student. Volunteers with autistic kids and is truly a big nerdy guy

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I'm not sure what you're asking. You can paint a nice picture of your son, but he obviously had at least something to do with whatever happened. I know it hurts for you to read that, but you've really got to understand that he's not perfect. Nobody is perfect. It doesn't matter one little bit that he's a virgin who doesn't smoke (how you know he's a virgin is ... questionable, but okay); the state thinks he's done something. He's an adult - these are consequences of his choices. And yes, he did choose.

He needs to listen to his attorney, and go on from there.

Based on everything you have said, all I can suggest is you hire a very good lawyer because your son is going to be easy prey if he makes prison.

He totally made the decision to not leave and made the decision to go along with them. I understand consequences. In regard to his virginity. We are Christians and its some thing he values. he is a man and is totally prepared for whatever happens. I'm just a scared mom. wondering what a no prior first time offense will get. No weapons and no one was home.

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Quoting Smichelle

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He totally made the decision to not leave and made the decision to go along with them. I understand consequences. In regard to his virginity. We are Christians and its some thing he values. he is a man and is totally prepared for whatever happens. I'm just a scared mom. wondering what a no prior first time offense will get. No weapons and no one was home.

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He needs to work closely with his attorney. You can help him by being supportive and help him pay for legal assistance. That's about all you can do.

This is a serious charge. Under California law, residential burglary counts as one strike under the three strikes law.

Hopefully, he'll wise up and choose his friends wisely in the future.

Well, your son went into the apartment and came out carrying the TV set that they were stealing when the cops showed up if I understand the situation correctly. That looks really bad — pretty much anyone seeing that is going to believe that your son was one of the burglars. And nearly every burglar caught in a circumstance like that is going to spin some tale to cast blame on the others and try to extricate himself. So of course the police aren’t going to believe his story. I think a jury will be pretty skeptical, too.

You won’t want to hear this, but your son may not have told you the truth about this. Of course he doesn’t want his parents to think he is a burglar. I’ve seen plenty of defendants who were guilty as sin who nevertheless told their friends and relatives that they had nothing to do with it, they were set up to do it, were forced to do it, or whatever because they don’t want to look bad to friends and family. And their friends and family believe it, because they don’t want to believe the defendant is a criminal either.

Of course I cannot say for sure that your son’s story is not the truth, but I too am skeptical of it. Who were these guys that he’s driving around? If he doesn’t know them well, why is he driving them around anywhere? He has no idea what they are into and what trouble might come from running around with them. If he knew them then he had to have some idea of what sort of things they were into. In any event, one wonders why he even drove them to the girl’s place. He needs to do a better job at picking the people he hangs out with. And once he figured out they were stealing, why didn’t he just drive off and leave them there? He was the driver. He had the keys. He could have bolted and been gone. At least that would have helped bolster his story that he wasn’t in on this if he could convince the jury he left as soon as he knew what they were up to. He likely knew they were up to no good before even going in the apartment, so why even go in there? Taking the TV and walking out with it is certainly not what I’d expect someone to do if he was not involved in the burglary.

Your son needs a good defense attorney to represent him on this. Given the circumstances and his confession I think it unlikely he’ll avoid a conviction entirely, but maybe the attorney can soften the blow here a bit and get it down to something less severe. If he’s lucky he’ll avoid prison time, though he might get some time in county jail. He’s very likely to end up with some kind of criminal conviction, though, and even if the sentence turns out not to be so bad that criminal record will follow him around and will make getting jobs, getting professional licenses, etc., more difficult.

You have already received legally accurate information regarding your son's situation, so I will only add a couple of things.

One, it is unlikely he will go to state prison if this is a first offense. He will likely spend some time (maybe a few weeks or months - if any time at all - in county jail with a felony conviction followed by some extensive probation including fines and restitution as well as search conditions.

Two, the state's DOJ is unlikely to test blood without a sample to compare it to. DNA sampling is time-consuming and expensive, and recent cuts at the state DOJ labs have made property crimes a low, low, LOW priority for such testing ... often, they won't do it at all. If this occurred in a county with their own lab, MAYBE they will get around to testing it one day. So, the fact that someone somehow bled at the scene is unlikely to result in an arrest in and of itself.

The fact that others are involved does nothing to mitigate your son's responsibility. From what I read here, he's guilty. He knew what was happening and he participated in the crime. Yeah, he may not have been the ringleader, and may not have been eager to help out, but, for reasons I can only speculate on, he clearly DID participate.

At this point, you can only assist him by helping him pay for a good attorney who can work on his defense. Though, steel yourself for a conviction and the fact that he will almost certainly have a felony conviction for burglary ... and, a crime of moral turpitude forever on his record.