well its going to help him because now the prosecutor has the burden of proving all these allegations are true and your buddy is indeed guilty of breaking the law, if he plead guilty then the state would have to do nothing but sentence him... most of these matters are settled without going to trial so by pleading not guilty the prosecutor is most likely going to offer some sort of deal..... however without an attorney the deal isn't going to be as good for your buddy then it would be if he had an attorney
and its very difficult to say what the minimum or maximum could be... could range from probation to jail time
and attorney is an absolute MUST in this situation

