Carjacking is taking somebody else’s car without permission. If someone claims to just be borrowing it for a short time but is taking it for good or if someone is taking somebody else’s car when he or she does not have permission. Another element of carjacking is showing an act of violence towards the owner of the car, by threatening them to take the vehicle. These charges can be confusing, and one should consult with an experienced attorney if charged.
Charges associated with carjacking can lead to extremely serious charges. Contacting a Fairfax carjacking attorney should be done immediately if charged.
In carjacking, there is the use of force. If someone’s car is parked in a parking lot and is taken while the person is not in the car, that is auto theft. However, if someone is sitting in their car in a parking lot and somebody approaches the vehicle and tells them to get out or they will be injured, or even killed, that’s carjacking. It is the presence of another person and the use of force or threat to get the automobile.
Joyriding does not come up too much in Fairfax. With carjacking, a person is using force or threat of force to take another person’s vehicle. Often, with joyriding, a person is not doing that; he or she is just taking someone else’s car and borrowing it for a short period of time and he or she doesn’t get that vehicle through means of violence.
With carjacking, a person does not have permission to do it and with, joyriding, either the person had permission to use it for a limited purpose or he or she is using it for more than he or she never had permission in the first place but plans to bring it back.
Carjacking is a felony no matter what and is never considered a misdemeanor. It carries a sentencing range of fifteen years up to life in prison.
The highest penalty is life –in prison. A carjacking on its own does not necessarily mean he or she is getting life in prison. If there are other felonies involved, that can push a person closer to either the judge sentencing him or her to life in prison or if he or she is going for a jury, the jury could sentence that person to life. It can add time onto someone’s sentence if there are more felonies and so instead of possibly getting a five-year sentence, the person could be looking at a six-year sentence and should therefore immediately consult with a Fairfax carjacking attorney.
If a person uses a firearm in the crime, he or she could be charged with use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. If, while he or she was taking that car, breaks any other laws while in that car, he or she could be charged with crimes resulting from those later incidents.
A person can also be charged with, depending on the facts of the case and what it is that he or she is alleged to have done, with abduction against the driver and that is a separate felony.
With any case, a person’s record comes up at trial and more so with felonies. When a person is charged with a felony, what he or she has done in the past is going to have a big impact on the judge. If he or she has a clean record, that works in the person’s favor. If a person has spent his or her life in and out of jail, then the judge is going to take that into consideration and could punish the person very harshly.
A Fairfax carjacking attorney will want to know the facts of the case. They will want to know the details of what a person is alleged to have done and how they can prove carjacking that the person was part of.
A carjacking charge can result in very serious charges that should be taken very seriously. Please contact a Fairfax carjacking lawyer right away if you are facing these charges.
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