Moira, NY Criminal Defense Law Firms & Lawyers

You have to put your faith in your defender. A sentence depends on a lot of things like the exact charge(s), how cooperative the complainant(s) are, any injuries or property damage, the criminal history (including all arrests even if no convictions), behavior towards the arresting officer(s) and other factors.

You cannot drop the charges. The DA will decide how it wants to proceed. There are things you can do. I suggest you retain a good criminal defense lawyer for your husband.

Under the facts you listed, I would say that it would be doubtful for a Murder charge. In New York State, Murder in the Second Degree is defined as: Acting either alone or with one or more other persons, he commits or attempts to commitrobberyand, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of immediate flight therefrom, he, or another participant, if there be any, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants; except that in any prosecution under this subdivision, in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant: (a) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause or aid the commission thereof; and (b) Was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury and of a sort not ordinarily carried in public places by law-abiding persons; and (c) Had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article or substance; and (d) Had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury There are still a number of factors that could weigh in on whether a murder charge could be sustained, including: 1) Were you armed with a deadly weapon during the robbery; 2) Was your friend armed with a deadly weapon during the robbery and did you know or have reason to believe that they would be armed during the robbery; 3) Were the actions taken in commission of the robbery exhibiting a "depraved indifference to human life?" In other words, when you attempted the robbery, were the actions completely reckless and could have caused death or injury? So, judging by the basic facts listed it does not appear that there would be grounds to charge murder, but, more details would be needed to definitively answer this question.