My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas
Hey guys, I am writing this because I am in a bit of legal trouble as of today.
I am an 18 year old male who as of today has been charged with
Attempted Theft. I have never been under legal trouble before, so I am
very clueless when it comes to all this. I am writing this because a
friend of mine told me I have a chance to get out of this due to
certain circumstances or at least get a lighter charge. He knows a lawyer that helped him with a public intoxication case and he is willing to refer me to this lawyer to help me out with my case for a reduced price.
I was at the mall today with 2 of my friends and we were walking
around from a bit. Boredom comes and my friend gets the idea to
shoplift because she says she has done it before. I am a bit on the
edge because I relatively don't dabble in things like this, but my
other friend seems confident and I follow them inside. Eventually I
try a shirt on and my friend suggests that I should get it, implying
to steal it. I still don't know if she is going to do it, so I am a
little hesitant with this whole ordeal. We walk through the store some
more and she disappears for a bit. Immediately I assume she is in the changing room and is putting the clothes in her bag, I realized we were already too deep to get out. She puts in the clothes she is stealing in her purse while my other friend is with me with an American Eagle bag we found in the store. He puts the shirt he wants in the bag and he also ripped off the tags before he did it. I don't think my shirt ever had a tag and if it did then I didn't rip it off myself. He tells me to put the shirt that I had in the bag, but I am doubtful that they can pull this off. I tell him I'm scared and don't
want to put it in the bag and give him the shirt. He puts it in the
bag for me and my friend comes out of the dresser and says to follow
her. She has clothes in her purse and my other friend has the bag with
2 shirts in it, we head toward the entrance and the uneasy feeling
starts to settle in. We're walking out and I run into an old friend
and we greet each other for a few seconds and the others continue to
walk so I catch up to them. Right when I do a guy from behind comes
from the store and tells my friend to open the bag and he finds the
shirt. Well we're escorted down to the room, do some paperwork and
eventually given a $325 fine individually to pay to the store
(Macy's). They didn't really talk to us or ask us why we did this, they just told us to sit and brought in paper work to fill out. They also call the police and he tells us that legally we are under arrest and he goes to get tickets for all 3 of us. We're given the same charge, Attempted Theft $50 to $500.
My friend with the purse is a 17 year old female and she had around 40
dollars worth of shirts (4 of them). The bag we my friend carried out the entrance contained 2 shirts
valued at exactly $59.96 when put together. They combined the 2 shirts
and both my friend and I were given a statement saying we stole $59.96
worth of merchandise. I am writing this because I have been
told that because I did not rip the tags off, I did not put the shirt
in the bag and I did not walk out with any merchandise, that I may
have a chance at dismissing my case or lowering the penalties.
Also when the cop was there, he asked for I.D.. I had nothing on me
at all, nothing to indicate who I am. He didn't believe me so he patted me down as well. I gave him my real name, date of birth and the address to my old house since we are in the process of moving and I couldn't think of my new address. I also gave him what I thought was my SSN, but when I got home I checked and realized I was off by a number. I don't think there is any record of me at all because I have never been in any legal trouble nor have I been to the DMV to take out any sort of license. I only have a passport which I did not have at the moment. I don't know if this will help at all but I thought I should mention this.
Sorry for the inconsistent paragraphs and jagged layout. It came out looking pretty funky after I was done.

