Spotsylvania Robbery Trial Process

The Spotsylvania robbery trial process begins from the point that a person is arrested. They are typically brought in front of a magistrate who will issue the warrant for the charges against them.

Based on what their charges are, they are going to issue a bond or no bond. It will probably be no bond if the person is charged with a robbery offense, even if they have a good record.

The person will continue to be held and arraigned by a judge who is going to tell them what the charges are and ask them if they would like to speak with an attorney. At this point, it may be critical to consider speaking with a lawyer about understanding robbery trial expectations.

How is Bond Determined in a Robbery Case?

At the bond motion, the court can either set bond or deny bond. If they set bond and the bond is too high, somebody can appeal that bond decision up to a higher court. If they deny bond, that decision to deny bond can also be appealed to a higher court.

Once bond is set, the person prepares with their attorney for a preliminary hearing, which is where the judge decides in general district court if there is enough evidence to proceed against them.

The prosecution has to present the minimal amount of evidence that says that more likely than not, there is evidence to go forward on this crime. It is easy to get a case certified up to the circuit court, which is the next step, to set it for trial and circuit court if it passes muster in the preliminary hearing stage.

How Does Bond Differ from a Preliminary Hearing?

In preliminary hearings, the judge says that everything gets certified up. After the hearing, it gets sent for trial. A grand jury will hear the evidence and certify it over.

This is when the Spotsylvania robbery trial process begins. Before that time, there is going to be pretrial motions and anything else that an attorney is going to be doing in the process.

Robbery Case Process vs Other Criminal Trials

Because robbery is a felony case, it is much more likely that a robbery charge is going to be treated more seriously. There is the right to an attorney whether or not that is asserted by the defense or by the prosecutor.

If it is much more serious, there is going to be a court reporter. It is going to be in a circuit court courtroom. Everything is going to be recorded and that can be very formal.

Robbery charges, specifically because there is so much on the line, often have a lot pretrial motions that need to be filed. There are usually a lot of witnesses in robbery trials, including eyewitnesses whose testimonies need to be disproved or attacked by the defense attorney.

Types of Defenses

Many defensive approaches include video and statements from individuals who experienced the alleged incident. The prosecution lays all these things down in order to present a clearer story of what happened the night of the alleged robbery.

The defense attorney could use technical defenses, but the case is not usually very technical. A lot of those will get taken outside of the presence of the jury. Contact an attorney to learn more about the types of defenses to utilize throughout the Spotsylvania robbery trial process.