My question involves criminal law for the state of: South Carolina
I am 24 years old and have 4 felony charges against me. 2 Burglary 3rd degree charges and 2 Grand Larceny charges ($10,000 or more). Its my first offense and I went to a preliminary hearing with my public defender today. Basically, I just want to see if someone can give me an idea as to what kind of time I'm looking at and what my options are, if any. I pretty much screwed myself out of any kind of defense because I gave a statement to the police the day I was arrested and pleaded guilty to the crimes. I wasn't in the right state of mind because I was messed up on pills and alcohol when I broke into a business and stole laptops and diagnostic equipment on 2 separate occasions. I also made it clear in the statements I gave that I was dealing with a pretty bad drug addiction problem. My PD told me today that I'm looking at a maximum sentence of up to 30 years. I gave back all the electronic equipment and everything that I stole from the place, because I hadn't gotten rid of any of it, like I said I did it without the intention of selling any of it or anything, pretty much just because I would get high and drunk and then I'd get angry at my old job and my old boss and would go to my old place of employment and just break in and steal stuff I knew theyd need to diagnose cars. So, I want to know if I am really going to get 30 years so if I am I might as well pull out of my pre-engineering classes I was supposed to start next semester so I wont be wasting my time and money. Also, my PD told me to start going to this state funded drug Rehab place so we can use that to try and convince the judge that Im really trying to pull myself together. Would it be better for me to get a good lawyer for this? I was thinking since I have no defense to argue anyways, itd be kind of pointless to get a good lawyer, but I dont know how this stuff works or if there might be something a good lawyer might be able to do for me in this case that a PD wouldnt be able to. If at all possible what I was hoping for was doing any amount of probation and fines and even jail time (but not 30 years) and doing anything (I heard about PTI and some boot camp that might also help me? or YOA or some youthful offender thing?) I possibly can to get past this and have the charges expunged so that I can get my engineering degree done and live a normal life. or have I ruined any slim chance at living a normal life? thanks guys for reading this.

