There’s no such thing as a small criminal charge. Many come with penalties such as time in prison and hefty fines if you’re found guilty, but they are not created equal. Even just a year in prison separates you from your family and makes it difficult for you to get a job. The more severe the crime is, the worse the punishment gets. If you’re accused of a crime, you need a criminal defense attorney, and theft crimes – such as burglary – are some of the most commonly committed crimes in the country.
What is Burglary and Theft Crime?
Any crime that focuses on stealing property from another is a theft crime. Theft crimes accounted for 73.4% of property crimes in 2021, as reported by the FBI. However, not all theft crimes are created equal. There are three different types to be aware of: larceny, burglary, and robbery. Of the three types, burglary is considered somewhere in the middle. It involves breaking and entering, unlike larceny, but doesn’t include using violence or the threat of violence like robbery.
Don’t Let Yourself Be Charged With the Wrong Crime
Just because burglary isn’t worse than robbery doesn’t mean that you can rest easy. Prosecutors could try to raise your burglary charge to robbery or try to charge you with burglary if you were originally only accused of petty larceny. You need an attorney who can keep the prosecution from seeking higher charges. The worse they are, the harder it will be to convince a jury to see you as innocent.
Burglary is worse than larceny because it involves breaking and entering. This means you’re being accused of invading someone’s private property with the intention to steal. This kind of violation is something a jury might take personally. Ensuring you’re not charged with burglary is important, and making sure you’re not charged with robbery, which includes violence against another, is even more important.
We Can Consider These Defenses Against Burglary Charges
There’s no time to waste once you’ve received a burglary charge. We have to establish a defense to start with, and then as evidence and facts evolve, we can build a more specific case to defend you. The defenses we can start with against burglary charges include:
- Alibi: An alibi is what it’s called when you can prove with witnesses and/or evidence that you were somewhere else at the time of the crime. This is one of your strongest defenses and can even be used to convince a prosecutor that your charge isn’t worth taking to trial.
- Illegal Search & Seizure of Evidence: If the evidence that supports your innocence is taken by authorities, and seemingly different from what you remember, claiming that it was illegally seized by investigators sows doubt in the jury against the prosecution.
- Illegal Questioning: You have the right to an attorney, and you should always ask for one. Law enforcement can’t question you without an attorney present if you do. If they try to, any admission you make cannot be used as evidence, and we can petition the court to have it stricken from the record.
- Lack of Intent: Breaking and entering is a serious crime, but not nearly as serious as burglary. If there’s definitive proof that you trespassed onto someone’s property, we can still focus on proving that you had no intent to steal.
- Lack of Miranda Rights: Everyone has to receive their Miranda rights before being questioned by law enforcement. If no one reads you your Miranda rights, anything you say – even with an attorney present – is inadmissible.
- You Had Permission to Remove the Items: Sometimes, arrests are born from misunderstandings and mistakes. If you were led to believe that you had permission to enter and remove items from a property, or someone else was not informed that you had permission, we can help prove it to a jury.
What Penalties Do You Face Over Burglary Charges?
Burglary charges are all felonies and only come in the form of second and first-degree felony charges. Burglary charges of the second degree are given to people who entered a non-residential building and did it when no one was there. This important distinction means that regardless of whether or not the prosecution can prove intent, there was no one you endangered, and you were not directly stealing from peers of the jury. If found guilty, you could face up to 10 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.
Burglary charges of the first degree are given to people who entered a residence or a building someone was in. A residence would be someone’s domicile, so entering an apartment building but not an individual apartment doesn’t count as entering a residence in some cases. At the same time, entering an apartment building with people, but an apartment without someone inside doesn’t mean that there were people at the place in question. Regardless, breaking and entering a residence alone is enough for a felony charge of the first degree. If found guilty, you could face up to 20 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.
Contact the Burglary Attorneys at Lermitte & Lubin, LLC for Help
There’s no criminal charge you can receive that you shouldn’t take seriously. You should immediately contact a criminal defense attorney no matter what the charge is. If you’re unsure of who to contact for help, choose an attorney who is from the Northeastern Pennsylvania area. Choose the attorneys at Lermitte and Lubin, LLC. Contact us today.
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