Robbery Penal Code PC §211 Laws & Penalties

A Robbery PC §211 conviction can ruin your life. A false conviction can result in incarceration in jail or prison, loss of employment, loss of a professional license, refusal of admission to a college or graduate school, loss of a security clearance, or the right to continue to serve in the armed forces.

Fortunately, our experienced criminal defense attorneys at My Criminal Defense develop powerful defense strategies that can result in the rejection, dismissal or exoneration of the Robbery Charges.

What is Robbery?

California Penal Code §211 defines robbery as the taking of personal property of another by means of force, fear or intimidation.

What must the prosecution prove to convict someone of Robbery?

In order to be found guilty of robbery, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that:

The defendant took property that was not his own.
The property was taken from another person’s possession and immediate presence
The property was taken against the person’s will.
The defendant used force or fear to take the property or to prevent the person from resisting and

When the defendant used force or fear to take the property, he/she intended to deprive the owner of the property permanently or for such an extended period of time that the owner would be deprived of a major portion of the value or enjoyment of the property.

Examples of Robbery

A. A bank teller, store clerk, or retail cashier, who is entrusted with handling money by his/her employer is approached by a person with a demand to turn over the money to that person. The perpetrator used a weapon to induce fear in the employee and the employee relinquished control over the money as a result of the fear.

The prosecution must prove that:

(1) The employee was entrusted with property by his/her employer (i.e. money).

(2) That some person demanded that the employee turn over the money while exhibiting a deadly weapon.

(3) The exhibition of the deadly weapon induced fear in the employee who turned over the money while under the sway of such fear, and

(4) The person taking the money intended to permanently deprive the owner of the money.

B. A person uses threats of deadly force to take a cell phone from its rightful owner. The person’s threat to inflict serious bodily injury induced fear in the owner of the cell phone which caused the owner to turn over the cell phone to the perpetrator of this crime.

The prosecution must prove that

(1) The victim was the rightful owner of the cell phone.

(2) The victim did not give the perpetrator consent to take the cell phone.

(3) The victim turned over possession of the cell phone only because of the fear induced by threats of serious bodily injury, and

(4) The Perpetrator intended to keep the cell phone permanently or for such an extended period of time that the owner of the phone was substantially deprived of his right to use and enjoyment of the phone.

C. A man enters a convenience store and steals a 12-pack of beer. The clerk tries to stop him and a fight over the beer. The man prevails and leaves the store. Because he used force to take the beer, this can be classified as a robbery.

A robbery takes on many forms and in some cases, the line between the taking or use of property may not be entirely clear. Please don’t try to be your own defense attorney.

Defending Robbery Charges

MCD will carefully develop a Defense Team in each case. In many cases, a professional investigator is employed to interview critical eyewitnesses favorable to the defense. An accomplished and reputable polygraph examiner can administer a confidential polygraph examination, and a forensic psychological examiner can conduct a psychological evaluation.

Claim of Right / Good Faith Belief

You obtained the property under what you believed to be a claim of right or had good faith belief that you were entitled to the property, regardless of whether that belief was wrong or unreasonable. For example, the cell phone you took from the other person would not be robbery if you had a legal claim of right to the cell phone or good faith and reasonable belief that you are the rightful owner of the cell phone or had a legal right to its possession and use.

False Accusation

There is a possibility that you are being falsely accused of Robbery. Using the cell phone example above, you maintain that some other person committed the robbery and that you had an alibi defense. Experienced criminal defense attorneys at My Criminal Defense will engage the services of a professional investigator to conduct interviews of people who can establish your alibi defense and also discredit eyewitness accounts of prosecution witnesses.

Investigators may also find witnesses who will establish that prosecution witnesses have a motive to lie about your involvement in the robbery. Your defense attorney may also arrange for you to undergo a confidential polygraph examination which would support your claim of innocence.

Pre-Arraignment Defense Strategies

My Criminal Defense Attorneys are proactive in their approach to defending you against unjust criminal charges. There is usually a window of time between the date of the incident and the date set for your arraignment. My Criminal Defense attorneys aggressively pursue successful defense strategies before the arraignment with the goal of convincing the prosecutor to reject the charges. A prosecutor has a sworn duty to reject criminal charges if he or she believes that there is reasonable doubt about the arrested person’s guilt of the charges.

My Criminal Defense attorneys focus all their efforts on obtaining evidence of your innocence before the prosecution decides to issue criminal charges against you. We employ professional investigators to obtain crucial witness statements that will establish your innocence. Remember, all that is required is a showing that there is reasonable doubt about your guilt. Once we produce evidence of reasonable doubt, we successfully lobby the prosecutor to reject your case. The prosecutor has a sworn duty to do so and we make sure that they honor their oath.

My Criminal Defense Attorneys have successfully defended thousands of clients who have been falsely accused of robbery and many other crimes by conducting a thorough investigation of the facts of each of our clients’ cases. Our criminal defense attorneys have extensive experience handling such cases and, with our defense team of investigators and experts, our attorneys can help defend your legal rights and protect you against wrongful and unjust prosecution.

With more than 27 years of professional experience, we pride ourselves in our ability to create successful strategies that will protect your life and freedom.

TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TODAY to protect your life and freedom. Call to set up a FREE confidential consultation with My Criminal Defense, Today!