Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

First you need to have your own attorney.

Second, you are charged with a state jail felony. This is the lowest level felony. The range of punishment is 180 days to 2 years in a state jail.

Nevertheless, you do not want to have a felony on your record for the rest of your life. If you try the case and are aquitted, or if the state dismisses the case, you can have your arrest expunged. No one will no about it.

If you are convicted, you would be ineligible for expunction unless you obtain a pardon from the governor.

If you plead guilty, you will have a conviction on your record.

There are two issues that should be considered.

First is whether the prosecutor will lower the charge to a class A misdemenor under section 12.44b of the penal code. They have the discretion to to so. If they are unwilling to do you, you can ask the court to sentence you under 12.44a of the penal code (which gives the court discretion to sentence your state jail felony as a Class A misdemeanor.

Next try to get deferred adjudication probation. If you sucessfully complete the probation, after a period of time, you will be eligible to file a petition for nondisclosure. An order of nondisclosure will not erase your record as completely as an expunction. However, it will erase it from most private agencies like backroundcheck.com. The courts and the police will still know about it and about 20 state agencies will know about ti.

Whether you try the case or not is your decision. Pleading a case to move on is a popular reason. I would not disagree with that rationale if I was representing someone toward the end of their life. However, you have most of your life ahead of you. You really need to think about that. A felony conviction will seriously affect that life. It can keep you out of jobs, away from housing and loans. People discriminate against convicted felons worse than blacks were discriminated against before the civil rights movement.

Whether you hire a private attorney or not is up to you as well. Texas law requires that to receive state jail appointments, an attorney must have done at lease 3 misdemeanor trials, so your attorney has at least that level of experience. He or she may have more. Should you hire a private attorney, I suggest you make sure they have at least as much experience as your appointed lawyer.

Good Luck!