Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

If they don't have enough evidence why would he take a probation?

He is eligible for deferred from a judge and probation from a jury. He is facing 5 to 99 years or life in prison.

What Ms. Henley means is that if there's really not enough evidence to prove he's guilty, his attorney should be trying to get the case no-billed by the grand jury, dismissed by the prosecutor, or should go ahead and take the case to trial--not try to get him probation for something the State can't prove he even did.

Of course, the reality is that there are grey areas involved with all that, and it's possible that the actual situation is that there is enough evidence that the State could technically prove the case, but it's still not such a great case (not so great a "victim", or maybe it was arguably just a fight with questionable intent to steal, so perhaps not a robbery), and so the case might go either way at trial. That sort of case would be qppropriate to try to get probation for. There are also other plea bargain options that might come up that could help resolve things (like reducing the charge to robbery, which would let a judge give him regular probation on a plea agreement if deferred adjudication was just not in the cards, or perhaps changing it to theft or assault). His attorney should be able to lay out all of the available options for him after reviewing the case and talking to the prosecutor.