There are just so many things here that we DON'T know, it's hard to tell what really happened. Such as ... why was the amount of his bail raised so drastically. Something had to have happened to cause that. And by his own admission, this young man hasn't even been straight with his own court appointed attorney.
These are some very serious charges he is facing - multiple counts of aggravated assault with injuries to the victims plus robbery charges plus whatever else. I'm no expert but I did work in the "system" for 24 years and I would be extremely surprised if he would be given a sentence of just two years or less, especially if he's been in trouble with the law before. From what I've seen, a 5-10 year sentence is entirely appropriate, even lenient, considering all those charges. Believe me, it could have been much, much worse! When they talk about making a "deal", it usually means that the prosecutor and defense attorney have talked and agreed on a plea bargain ... in exchange for a guilty plea, the prosecutor agrees to reduce some of the charges to a lesser charge, one carry a lesser penalty. This is the best deal he's going to get and I hope he has the good sense to take it! If they reduced the charges to ones carrying a 5-10 year penalty and he chooses not to take the deal and go to trial, he will be tried on the original charges and they could carry a much longer sentence than 5-10 years! If he fights it, pleads not guilty, and is then found guilty at trial (and he WILL be found guilty!) he could get a nasty surprise when he is sentenced! And there won't be anything he or you can do about it!
And I sincerely hope that you won't risk huge amounts of money, drain a retirement account, or go in to debt to hire an expensive private attorney. What good would it do at this point? Just to try to convince a judge to give him a lesser sentence? Sentencing is only partly up to a judge. They do have some latitude but there are sentencing guidelines that they, by law, have to abide by, a range that the judge can pick from as he or she sees appropriate. If he thinks that pleading not guilty and then bankrupting his family to provide him with an expensive attorney and causing the county to go to the expense and trouble to conduct a trial will get him a shorter sentence, he is sadly mistaken. And don't forget, a 5-10 year sentence does not mean that he will do 5-10 years! In a time-building state prison he will be able to earn sentence credits for working and behavior credits that can reduce the time he actually does significantly, and he may become eligible for parole and get out even sooner.
And as for the "remorse" part ... I have seen very few who were truly remorseful for the fear, injuries or monetary losses that their victims suffered. They are sorry for themselves, sorry they got caught, sorry they have lost their freedom, sometimes even sorry for their own families. But I have seen very, very few who had genuine sympathy or guilty feelings for the pain that THEY caused their victims to suffer. Instead, they seem to see themselves as the victims, victims of "the system", victims of attorneys or prison officials, victims of other inmates, but no real concern for the ones who are the real "victims".
Peace!
