My friend and two others were caught stealing at a Walmart. She told me she a court hearing next week and this is her first time dealing with this type of situation and needs advice.

She’s a freshman college in college and she can easily be influenced to do dumb things which I’ve already talked to her about it. She was hanging with other students who for some reason thought it would be fun to steal and she went ahead and joined in on ride.

She stole around $80 worth of merchandise. And one of the other individuals stole around $400 worth of merchandise.

The store manager decided to press charges on all three of them for the same amount, but as a MISD since they were cooperating.

My friend’s record is clean, no legal issues what so ever apart from this one. Like I said she’s a college freshman who has had a good academic career so she isn’t someone who takes part of this lifestyle, just kids being dumb.

She doesn’t have money for a lawyer so she will have to take the public defender route.

What should she say during the hearing, what can she expect? What should she tell the public defender?

I’m just trying to make sure she’s prepared.

Thanks