Very worried about my son

[needadvice65]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
My son is 24. He was arrested last month for possession of Marijuana under 4 oz. and delivery of Oxycodone over 4 grms and under 200 grms. This happened during a traffic stop. Last week he was arrested again. This time the police came to his house, searched it and charged him with possession of Marijuana over 4 oz less than 5 lbs. He is also being charged with felon in possession of a firearm. There were two firearms found in his house. He has a prior felony conviction from several years ago for Credit Card Abuse. He was 17 when he was convicted of this and given three years probation. He had his probation revolked for not reporting and spent 6 months in state jail. If his attorney can't get some of these charges dropped or reduced what range of prison time do you think he may receive? The attorney is going to try to get the 2 charges from the home search dropped due to illegal search prior to getting a search warrant.

 

[Banned_Princess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
My son is 24. He was arrested last month for possession of Marijuana under 4 oz. and delivery of Oxycodone over 4 grms and under 200 grms. This happened during a traffic stop. Last week he was arrested again. This time the police came to his house, searched it and charged him with possession of Marijuana over 4 oz less than 5 lbs. He is also being charged with felon in possession of a firearm. There were two firearms found in his house. He has a prior felony conviction from several years ago for Credit Card Abuse. He was 17 when he was convicted of this and given three years probation. He had his probation revolked for not reporting and spent 6 months in state jail. If his attorney can't get some of these charges dropped or reduced what range of prison time do you think he may receive? The attorney is going to try to get the 2 charges from the home search dropped due to illegal search prior to getting a search warrant.

I don't know about Texas, I heard they hang you for traffic violations.

 

[FlyingRon]

I'd expect jail time. Second felony and poor disposition of the first.
I hope the lawyer is a good one.

 

[ERAUPIKE]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
My son is 24. He was arrested last month for possession of Marijuana under 4 oz. and delivery of Oxycodone over 4 grms and under 200 grms. This happened during a traffic stop. Last week he was arrested again. This time the police came to his house, searched it and charged him with possession of Marijuana over 4 oz less than 5 lbs. He is also being charged with felon in possession of a firearm. There were two firearms found in his house. He has a prior felony conviction from several years ago for Credit Card Abuse. He was 17 when he was convicted of this and given three years probation. He had his probation revolked for not reporting and spent 6 months in state jail. If his attorney can't get some of these charges dropped or reduced what range of prison time do you think he may receive? The attorney is going to try to get the 2 charges from the home search dropped due to illegal search prior to getting a search warrant.

Lets see, your son is a convicted felon charged with a plethora of additional felonies, including gun charges. Why on earth would any judge reduce or dismiss the charges against your drug dealing son?

Your son may be subject to a federal law that would add a mandatory additional 5 years to any sentence he may receive since he had a gun near a large amount of drugs. There is no way to tell what the sentence may be without knowing exactly what statutes he was charged with. My most educated guess would be that he can expect and deserves to spend a very long time in prison.

 

[commentator]

It sounds to me like your son is an addict, that's driving all the other behaviors. If they could get a diversion to some sort of rehab opportunity, that'd be about the only thing that could possibly alter the course of his life, and the court might see that and go with it if it were offered as an alternative. If he's not an addict, and tries to argue such, he's a felon well on his way to being a career felon.

 

[ERAUPIKE]

It sounds to me like your son is an addict, that's driving all the other behaviors. If they could get a diversion to some sort of rehab opportunity, that'd be about the only thing that could possibly alter the course of his life, and the court might see that and go with it if it were offered as an alternative. If he's not an addict, and tries to argue such, he's a felon well on his way to being a career felon.

Are you serious? That is incredibly inaccurate. Did you even review the slew of charges this gun toting drug dealer was facing?

 

[commentator]

I'm reviewing with the perspective that I don't see a significantly large amount of drugs, weapons pulled or used, a consistent pattern of offenses or any violent felonies and the fact that Texas doesn't have the space and inclination to put non-violent felons away for "a very long time in prison" or they will not have any room left in their facilities for the father-rapers and mother-stabbers and child molesters, people who move millions of pounds of illegal drugs across borders, skin the faces of their enemies.

 

[ERAUPIKE]

I'm reviewing with the perspective that I don't see a significantly large amount of drugs, weapons pulled or used, a consistent pattern of offenses or any violent felonies and the fact that Texas doesn't have the space and inclination to put non-violent felons away for "a very long time in prison" or they will not have any room left in their facilities for the father-rapers and mother-stabbers and child molesters, people who move millions of pounds of illegal drugs across borders, skin the faces of their enemies.

So on what authority do you assume to be able to speak for the entire state of Texas? It seems that you have based your advice on opinion and ignorance.

Here are the indisputable facts:

If charged with a state jail felony (Possession of Marijuana over 4 oz less than 5 lbs) or of a third-degree felony and defendant has been once before convicted of a felony, on conviction he shall be punished for a second-degree felony.

§ 12.33. SECOND DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT.
(a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
(b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000

That punishment, a mandatory minimum, only applies to the single felony possession of marijuana charge.

The biggest problem the OP's son will have is the delivery of Oxycodone charge, which falls into Penalty Group 1 according to the Texas Controlled Substances Act. Penalty Group 1 will result in a sentence of a term of life or for a term not more than 99 years or less than 10 years and a fine not to exceed $100,000. Which by my initial calculations is a long time by any standard.

Then you add the guns, possessed by a convicted felon, found next to a large amount of marijuana to his resume. I consider any amount of drugs that result in a felony charge a large amount. This could easily result in Federal charges since the guns were found in proximity to the drugs. This charge would add an additional and mandatory five years to any sentence this little dirtbag might receive. Again, I think any reasonable person would consider five years in prison a long time. Keep in mind this five year sentence is to be served consecutively not concurrently. I guess we could call that "a long time."

His previous record and failure to adapt to the corrections system will be more likely to help him get each sentence served consecutively as well.

While "father-rapers" and "mother-stabbers" (two terms that are new to me) deserve to be locked up, any law abiding citizen could agree that a gun toting drug dealing felon is obviously not a productive member of society. If you have any legally accurate advice please feel free to add your two cents. It seems that drug classes are simply not an option in this case, if the courts follow the laws that govern the state.

 

[>Charlotte<]

"father-rapers" and "mother-stabbers" (two terms that are new to me)

Long live Arlo Guthrie.

In any case, I suppose it's safe to assume that Texas jails aren't overcrowded because they're not putting people in Texas jails.

 

[FlyingRon]

Long live Arlo Guthrie.

In any case, I suppose it's safe to assume that Texas jails aren't overcrowded because they're not putting people in Texas jails.

How about the Group W bench?

 

[CavemanLawyer]

Here are the indisputable facts:

If charged with a state jail felony (Possession of Marijuana over 4 oz less than 5 lbs) or of a third-degree felony and defendant has been once before convicted of a felony, on conviction he shall be punished for a second-degree felony.

§ 12.33. SECOND DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT.
(a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
(b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000

That punishment, a mandatory minimum, only applies to the single felony possession of marijuana charge.

The biggest problem the OP's son will have is the delivery of Oxycodone charge, which falls into Penalty Group 1 according to the Texas Controlled Substances Act. Penalty Group 1 will result in a sentence of a term of life or for a term not more than 99 years or less than 10 years and a fine not to exceed $100,000. Which by my initial calculations is a long time by any standard.

I do agree that this individual is in serious trouble and facing serious time but for the sake of accuracy, the facts are not quite what you posted.

That is not how enhancements work in Texas, it is far more complicated than that. A State jail felony is not enhanced to a 2nd degree felony based on a prior felony conviction (unless that prior conviction had a deadly weapon finding.) A third degree felony isn't even enhanced up unless the prior felony is non-state jail. Furthermore you can't use a felony conviction as the predicate offense in a charge of felon in possession of a firearm and then use it again as an enhancement. Its considered double jeopardy. I could spend all day trying to explain the ridiculously overly complicated enhancement system in Texas but the bottom line is that his prior is a state jail felony of credit card abuse. That cannot be used as an enhancement for any purpose because it takes at least two state jail felony convictions to serve as an enhancement. (again unless there was a deadly weapon finding which is virtually unheard of for CC Abuse.) So he is facing the non-enhanced range of punishment for each of these offenses.

The possession of marihuana 4oz to 5 lbs is a state jail felony so the range is 6 months to 2 years in State jail. Felon in possession of a firearm is a third degree with a range of 2 to 10 years in prison and the delivery of oxycodone is a first degree with a range of 5 to 99 or life.

Again, I agree that this is not the type of offender that gets cut a break at this point in his "career."

 

[FlyingRon]

It's not double jeopardy, but you are right it can't be used as an enhancement. You need to be CONVICTED of the prior before being charged with the offense being considered for enhancement.

 

[CavemanLawyer]

It's not double jeopardy, but you are right it can't be used as an enhancement. You need to be CONVICTED of the prior before being charged with the offense being considered for enhancement.

I think you just misread. He WAS convicted of the credit card abuse state jail felony. It is that conviction which makes this unlawful possession of a firearm. What I stated was that since the credit card abuse conviction is used as a predicate offense in the indictment to make the gun possession unlawful, it cannot then be reused as a punishment enhancement to make this a second degree. I am quite certain that the correct legal term for this is double jeopardy.