Charges: Burglary, Aggravated Criminal Trespass, Criminal Trespass, Tampering with a Witness, Obstructing Report of a Crime, Domestic Violence Assault, Violating Conditions of Release x2
Maximum Penalty: If convicted and the judge ran all the sentences consecutively, the client was looking at an excess of 25 years in prison.
Summary: Burglary is defined as entering a building or dwelling for the purpose of committing a crime within. In this case, my client kicked in the door of his girlfriend’s apartment, allegedly choked her to a point of unconsciousness, slapped her around, prevented her from making contact with the police and later contacted her for the purpose of convincing her to change her story. Client also violated his bail for contacting the victim while the case was pending.
Result: The victim in this case gave a few different versions of her story on different occasions. She also recanted her story and thus was considered a wild card by both the prosecution and defense. It was also obvious to us that my client could be convicted of at least the criminal mischief charge due to the damage to the door and frame. Ultimately, all felonies were dismissed in return for a plea of guilty to a single count of Violating Conditions of Release, Obstructing Report of a Crime and Domestic Violence Assault. While these were serious charges that carried potential jail and probation time, they were misdemeanors and the goal in this case was to avoid a conviction on any of the felonies. That goal was achieved.
