Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

It is entirely possible that you could be held in contempt or otherwise have a material witness warrant issued. Either way you could be incarcerated in order to compel your presence in court to testify.

It is rare for prosecutors to take such steps. In most cases, if the prosecutor is unable to secure their witness then they will try to prosecute the case without them, if possible. If it is not possible to prosecute they often will dismiss the case.

Of course, just because many prosecutors don't try to have victims arrested does not mean that they can't. Many prosecutors often do, even if not all. Remember, a subpoena is a court order and if you were properly served with one but failed to obey it then you could risk incarceration.

You can be held in contempt, which means you can be put in jail for up to 6 months. The most probably penalty is that you will be dragged into court (via the police if necessary) at which point the Judge will want you to explain why you ignored a court order to appear. Depending on your answer, the most likely outcome is that you will be admonished and have to waste the better part of your day in front of the judge. If you miss another date after that admonishment, you will likely spend a few days in jail. If you are really the victim of an armed robbery, it is probably in your best interest to remain cooperative. A cooperative witness rarely has to go to trial because people plea when they are certain the victim will testify.