Please help, I'm in trouble.?

Question

2 months ago, my former friend's dad got in an accident, in which he was no longer able to work. He was no longer to pay the bills and was 2 months behind. I was nice, so I loan my friend 4000 dollars. He promised he would have payed me once he received his income return. 1 month ago, his friend told me he had received his income return. Right after, I tried to get ahold of him, but to no avail. He never answered my calls or was never home. At that time, I had arranged to pay a deposit and first months rent of an apartment my friends and I were getting. I had 3 days left to pay, but I still couldn't get ahold of him. I found out one day that he told his friend that he was never going to pay me. This is when my 4 friends and I decided to break into his house to at least get some stuff of his. One night, we drove to his house. When we got there, we decided not to do it, so my friend just threw 2 rocks at the windows. On the way out of the neighborhood, we got stopped.

Our story sounded fishy, so the cops decided to check the truck. In the truck, the cops found some crowbars, gloves, and screwdrives. They took us in. They just had us for possession of criminal instruments, untill they interrogated my brother to admitting that we were going to break in but decided not to. He panicked. He wrote a statement of what happend and gave it to the police. Since we overheard him, we did the same, so all our stories would match.

So, now we are charged with 3 felonies each; possession of criminal instruments, organized crime (attempted burglary), and burglary w/ intent to commit theft. We're going to see a lawyer this monday. What are the chances of burglary sticking? I mean, we decided not to do it and took off. So, wouldn't that be conspiracy. Even then, couldn't we retract our statements and say they were coereced.

All they have is the tools, just screwdrivers crowbars and gloves, no guns or knifes. If we retract our statements, how do they know we weren't going to use the tools to break into a car, a building, a shed, or just to play handyman. By the way, they caught us on the way out of the neightborhoood.

By the way, I talked to the lawyer about getting my money, but he said there's nothing I could do because I didn't have him sign anything. No one saw me loan him the money, and it would be just my word vs his.

What do you think my punishment will be? I have no priors, not even a traffic ticket. Do you think I'll do time?

Answer 1

The most you can do is learn a lesson.

Don't loan money to people.

If you break that rule, get a signed contract/promisary note for repayment.

Don't break a law to get revenge on something bad someone else has done to you.

This may cost you $4000. It could have cost you your life.

Answer 2

There are "rules" to loaning money, and getting it back. a piece of paper with "IOU $4000 and will repay it by January 1, 2008. Signed by: and dated" would have gotten your money back. This applies to girlfriends/boyfriends, family and friends. If they plan on paying you back they will not mind signing it.
Two wrongs do not make a right. You were wrong to involve your friends and especially your brother in your problem. You have now caused all of you to have a police record. This will cost you a lot more than $4000 and no one who knows you will trust you for a long time after this. If you are an adult, you will admit that it was all your idea and that you talked your brother and friends into helping you. They would get a more reasonable sentence and you would be accepting the responsibility that is in fact yours. The court might see this as a statement of maturity on your part and go a little easier on you also. If you go to jail, stay out of trouble and get some education while you are there.

Answer 3

If your lawyer is any good you have a good chance of beating the burglary charge, but you still have a felony possession of burglary tools charge. If the judge is reasonable you might get the charges lowered to a less serious charge. After all you didn't actually go through with the break-in. Hopefully you don't have any prior convictions or arrests for any other felonies. Your lawyer might work out a reasonable deal that doesn't involve you doing time.
Good luck!

Answer 4

Without a good lawyer, you can count on the Criminal Attempt to Commit Burglary sticking, cause that's exactly what you did. Man get a lawyer, see if you can make a deal for Crim. Trespassing, or some other misdemeanor offense, and walk with probation. Very bad decision, but we all make em. I wish you luck.

Answer 5

It's still conspiracy to commit. You wrote your statements and it doesn't sound like coercion to me. You have the right to remain silent. You admitted to it and you conspired with your friends to do it. Therefore you are guilty of conspiracy to commit. It doesn't matter if you backed off at the last minute. You and your friends were foolish of making the statements in the first place so I don't feel sorry for you one bit. Bite the bullet.

Answer 6

This won't help but it has been said many times. Never lend money to a friend unless you want to lose him. This is always a hard decision to make concerning a friend but you now know the results. Good luck in getting fair treatment concerning this problem. You were just trying to help your friend out of a problem.

Answer 7

The lawyer is probably right.In the future get everthing in writing.It's too bad you lost out on all that money.Consider this a very expensive mistake.Be careful whom you pick for friends.Also two wrongs don't make a right.So it's good to hear you changed your mind about breaking into his house.

Answer 8

Youre absolutely right you got big trouble. Get yourselves a good lawyer and i wish you the best.....bettyk

Answer 9

Hope you have a good lawyer
lots o luck

Answer 10

what the hell. break and enter is against the law, despite whether you think the person "owed you"... creep.