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-In penal code section 211 California law defines robbery
as taking property from the immediate possession of
another person, accomplished by means of force or fear.
So it's a situation like a mugging or a hold up where you
use violence or the threat of violence in order to coerce
somebody to give you their property.
-What distinguishes robbery from just an ordinary theft is
force or fear, either use of violence
or threat of violence.
And that's what makes robbery a much more serious crime than
just an ordinary theft.
-Usually that means that the property is in their
possession or immediate vicinity.
But they don't necessarily have to be the
owner of that property.
I could be borrowing my friend's purse, and somebody
could come mug me for that purse.
Even though I don't own it, the person would still be
liable for robbery.
-The law says that robbery is a crime that continues until
the person reaches a place of temporary safety.
And what that means is that if you commit just a theft, but
in the course of trying to get away, you use force or fear
against a person, then that escalates
that theft into robbery.
Here in California, we call this an Estes robbery, after a
famous case People versus Estes.
And to give you an example, suppose I go and do what's
commonly called a beer run at 7/11.
So I go, I get a six pack of beer, I go up to the counter
like I'm going to pay for it.
But all of the sudden, I turn around and dash out the door
without paying for it.
Now, at that point, what I've committed is a petty theft,
maybe a burglary.
But suppose that that clerk jumps over the counter, takes
off after me, chases after me, and I turn around, and I punch
that clerk in the face to get him off my tail.
At that point, I've used force to accomplish my get away.
And so that simple crime of theft has elevated to the much
more serious crime of robbery.
-Robbery is always a felony in California.
And it's also a strike under California's
Three Strikes law.
If convicted of a robbery, you face up to five
years in state prison.
However, California has a 10-20 Life sentencing
enhancement for using a gun in the
commission of certain crimes.
So what this means for a robbery case is that if you
commit a robbery, and you point a gun at someone in the
course of that robbery, but you don't even fire it, that
adds an automatic 10 years on to that sentence.
If you fire a warning shot, and that doesn't even hit
anybody, that adds an automatic 20 years.
If you fire a gun, and you shoot somebody, now that adds
an automatic 25 years to life.
So you can see how using a gun dramatically increases the
prison time in a robbery case.
-Robbery is one of those crimes where a lot of innocent
people get wrongly accused.
The good news is that here at Shouse Law Group, we have a
great record of success in defending clients accused of
robbery and ultimately helping them in getting their charges
reduced or dismissed.
-One of the most common defenses in a robbery case is
misidentification.
And the fact is that mistaken eyewitness identification is
the number one reason why innocent people get wrongly
accused and wrongly convicted of crimes
across the United States.
And it's certainly true in robbery cases.
One of the reasons is that robberies are almost always
these abrupt, startling events.
And usually, there's a weapon involved, a gun, a knife, a
baseball bat.
And when there is, the victims and the witnesses have a
tendency to fixate on the weapon, as opposed to the face
of the perpetrator.
So you have a situation where because of the weapons focus,
people don't get a good look at the face
of the actual robber.
And because of the stress and the chaos of the event,
people's mental faculties are not working well.
And consequently, when you take these witnesses to a live
lineup or show them a six pack photo line up or a show up on
the street, they have a real tendency to point to the wrong
person and say, yeah, that looks like the guy.
And the tragedy is that this has resulted in thousands and
thousands of innocent people being wrongfully convicted and
wrongly sent to prison.
-Another defense to a robbery charge would be that you
didn't use force or fear to accomplish the taking.
Thus, it's not a robbery.
Now for example, say you see a woman in the park, and you
knock her to the ground, and take her purse, and run off.
Now that would be a robbery, because you used force to
accomplish the taking of her purse.
Now, say you go up to another woman in the park.
And you go up to her and say, "Give me your purse, or I'll
shoot you." that would be a robbery, because you used fear
to accomplish the taking of her purse.
Now say you go up to a third woman in the park, and you
just grab the purse out of her hand and run off.
This is probably not a robbery, because you didn't
use any more force than it took just to grab the item.
There was no violence or threats used.
Therefore, it may be a theft from a person, but it's not
the more serious crime of a robbery.
-Another common defense in a robbery case is what we call
claim of right.
What that means is if you have an honest and good faith
belief that the property is yours, you can use reasonable
force to retake it.
Suppose somebody stole my bicycle, and one day I see
them riding down the street on it.
I can go up to them and retake my property, even if I have to
struggle to get it back.
-One defense that we've had a lot of success with is
asserting that our client was just merely present and not
actually in on the robbery.
He may have been just hanging out with
some guys on the street.
And his friends just decided to rob somebody.
But it was not our client's idea, and he did not
participate in the robbery.
He was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with
the wrong company.
In this situation, he should not be
held liable for robbery.
Because the prosecutor has to prove not just he was there
but that he also was an active participant.
-Sometimes in a robbery case, the evidence against our
client is just irrefutable.
Maybe they have him on camera.
Maybe he confesses.
Maybe there's not much of a defense that we can wage on
the facts and the merits of the case.
But even in those situations, a lot of times we can work out
a deal with the prosecutor and the judge to reduce the charge
to something substantially less, like a grand theft
person or even a petty theft.
We had a case recently where a young lady was facing a
robbery charge that could have involved substantial time in
the hall and having a strike on her record, because she was
already 16.
But we were able to point out some issues with the
credibility of the witness and the fact that the victim was
not injured and ultimately, convince the prosecutor to
reduce the charge to a petty theft.
And by doing this, we were able to prevent our client
from having a strike on her record, to prevent her from
having a felony on her record that could have marred her for
the rest of her life, and prevent her from going to
juvenile hall.