Rhubarb297 said:
Of course one can "guess" what the court might do. A local criminal lawyer (and I mean local to that county) can make a darn good "guess" about what sentence the person would receive.
And, as usual, RubySlippers is WRONG!! An attorney is a FOOL if he tries to tell you EXACTLY what a court would rule. He might say that you MIGHT get this, or you MIGHT get that... but he/she has absolutely NO way to 'KNOW' how a court might rule, or what sentence they will give a person. There are simply too many variables.
For example, we don't know if the writer is going to request a jury or bench trial. We don't know if the prosecutor might be up for election and have a "Jail A Thief" campaign slogan. We don't know if the OP might be before a 'part-time' judge who might own (or have a wife/husband who owns) a retail store.
The only REAL information we can provide ACCURATELY is what the law allows.
Even a non-lawyer can "guess" what the court may do. It might just be a bad guess though.
And of course, according to most of your error-filled posts, you have a LOT of experience with WRONG 'guesses', huh??