Should my friend stick with his not guilty plea or go along with what his lawyer says and plead guilty?

Question

A friend of mine was visiting his cousin at his cousins house. He was just hanging out there.Later that day,a guy comes to his cousins house and starts trouble and pulls a gun on his cousin.The cousin goes and gets his gun and holds it in his hand while the other guy was outside.The guy that doesn't live there calls the police on the guy that does live there.He tells them he has a gun.The police shows up at my friends cousins house and wants to search.He tells them no.They go get a search warrant to search for the gun.Supposedly an AK-47. They detain my friend and his cousin and cuff them and put them in the police car while they search.They did not find the gun but searched a purse that was in his cousins room which belonged to his cousins girlfriend.She was at work at the time.The cops put the charge on my friend and his cousin.Possession of under 2 ounces of marijuana.My friend has never been in trouble before.

My brother went there to live with his cousin and his girlfriend for a little while. The purse was found in the house it wasn't on anybody it was found in the house. The girlfriend was at work when all this happened but it was in her purse in the house and my brother was on the couch sleep and everything started going on and he is being charged with possession of marijuana when the marijuana was found in the purse in the house but not on my brother.

Answer 1

Several points:

They had probable grounds to search the purse - it was possible to hide a gun in there. It depends how specific the warrant was - if it said "long gun, AK47" then they had no business. If it said "gun" (the police aren't stupid, it as general as possible I bet) then a purse could contain a handgun.

So now, who's "in possession" of the pot? The short answer is "wasn't my purse", but then when the cops rang the doorbell, anyone could have stashed it there. (Although that logic is pretty stupid, if the cops were coming in, better to flush.)

I am not a lawyer, so it depends what the precedent and law says about possession in your state. If you happen to be in the same building as a substance, are you in possession? Or just the owner/tenants? I suspect enough states have had enough defendants gone through the "it's not mine, it's his..." routine - they've probably set the law so everyone found in the building who could have touched it can be charged. This isn't CSI, they don't dust the baggie or purse for prints. I bet the cop didn't even wear gloves when handling it.

Your lawyer can tell you what the rule is in your state. If he's telling them to plead, then I suspect there's no way out. I bet the only out is if the real owner pleads guilty and says the others knew nothing about it. I guess the question is what sort of sentence/record someone will get?

However, if the cops are p*ssed off about people waving guns (proven or not) they may not care and may want to throw the book at everyone involved. They call it the "Justice" system, but Justice rarely has much to do with it.

Answer 2

Are you sure it was an AK-47. This cleared up some questions from your last post but it created more...obviously you are saying that no one had the purse...but that is just what you were told..it might not be true but anyway...

The cousin when attacked pulled out an AK-47? That seems a little far fetched but if true then he needs to be off the strreets and unfortunately your brother got caught up in it.

There seems to be facts the poilice and prosecutor know that you and we don't know. A prosecutor would not waste time with silly charges...it is a waste of their busy schedules and resources. It is possible that if the guy has automatic weapons they believe that he was a drug dealer and your cousin went there to purchase drugs....it is possible they go to get a new warrant and search further...and are you saying they never found the weapon? Since they seem to have checked everything it is weird they found nothing when you are saying at least one gun was there.

This is definately a sitution where are the facts have not been layed out...but goodluck to you brother...cases are made with less sometimes.

Answer 3

Well, if you have the facts right, and your friend didn't have any drugs on himself, then they have no case unless one of the officers perjures himself by getting up on a witness stand and stating that he was carrying.

As a matter of law, if someone testifies to a fact under oath, then that testimony is considered to be factual. The only way to discredit the witness, is to catch them in a lie on the witness stand. Even if you do, then a jury would not necessarily discredit the testimony of the witness, and in the case of a police officer, probably wouldn't.

Bottom line, your friend probably can't win, and if he goes to trial then the judge will maximize the sentence, just out of spite for making them go through the trial process. I don't know what they are offering him, but, he should do what he thinks is best. The lawyer will get paid win or lose, so he has nothing to lose one way or the other.

He is just advising your friend according to his own opinion of the chances of beating the charges.

Answer 4

It sounds to me like 3 people have committed crimes. The person who originally pulled the gun, your friends cousin who pulled a gun and your friends cousins girlfriend for possession. Not your friend. It doesn't sound like any persons involved have been straight with the police, including your friend. If I was your friend I wouldn't plead guilty for someone elses crimes. I would tell the truth always. The lawyer is wrong for expecting anything different.

Answer 5

If this is the whole story, have your friend ask his attorney why he should plead guilty for pot found in a PURSE.

Answer 6

he should stick with his plea of not guilty