California carjacking under PC 215 is the felonious taking of an automobile belonging to or in possession of someone else through violence or fear. This driving crime is common, but many people do not understand the consequences of a conviction, including nine years of prison incarceration. If you face these allegations, you should work tirelessly to prevent a guilty verdict and the penalties that come with it.

You should hire a criminal defense lawyer with knowledge of the Penal Code that applies to the crime. Skilled defense lawyers at California Criminal Lawyer Group in Fresno know your freedom is at stake if you face carjacking accusations. Therefore, we will discuss with the DA various defense techniques to dismiss or lower the charges to a crime with more lenient penalties.

Carjacking Legal Definition

When you hear the term carjacking, what comes to mind are the scenes you see in the movies. However, these cases are prevalent in Fresno, California, which is why there is a Penal Code that criminalizes the conduct. Per PEN 215, it is a felony to take a car belonging to or in control of another party from their immediate person or the presence of an occupant in the automobile against the person’s will and with the motive to temporarily or permanently deny them its use or enjoyment through violence or fear.

You risk these counts even if the individual onboard the automobile is not the actual owner of the automobile. The court focuses on your use of physical violence, intimidation, or threats to take the car.

Carjacking sounds like robbery, but these two crimes are distinct. Robbery involves permanently taking another party’s property without authorization, while carjacking involves taking an individual’s automobile momentarily or perpetually.

If you learn of an impending arrest for carjacking or face a formal count, you should talk to a defense lawyer to investigate the case and craft defense techniques to contest the state’s allegations.

Carjacking Elements

Many cases do not reach the trial stage. However, what should you expect when your case goes to trial? The prosecutor or district attorney (DA) will demonstrate their case against you beyond moral certainty. Your defense lawyer will also have the opportunity to present evidence in your favor or to challenge the DA’s arguments.

The DA has the burden of proof and must prove several carjacking elements beyond moral certainty. These aspects of the case are:

  1. The Automobile Was in Possession or Immediate Presence of Another Party

The DA must demonstrate that the automobile was in someone else’s possession and that you took it from their immediate presence or person. “Immediate person or presence” means the car was within the holder’s control, close reach, or observation. The holder would have reserved the auto's possession if not for your application of physical violence or intimidation.

The definition widens the scope of carjacking from the typical scenario where you, armed with a weapon, threaten the victim to step out of the vehicle, hop in, and drive off. You risk conviction even when the alleged target was not in the car or driving during the crime. If the vehicle was within the victim’s reach or observation, it was within their person.

  1. You Took the Automobile Without the Holder’s Consent

Taking another party’s vehicle means assuming possession and moving it some distance. The distance is not critical in the eyes of the law. The focus is on whether the car drove or not. If it covers some distance, you will be sentenced for carjacking. Nevertheless, if the vehicle does not move, you will not be convicted of carjacking, but the court will punish you for an attempted PEN 215 violation.

Similarly, the DA should show that you took control of the car without permission or against the victim’s will. An individual gives approval or authorization if they let you take the vehicle voluntarily or freely without coercion or violence. If the DA demonstrates the accuser did not positively cooperate or surrender the automobile out of a free will, they satisfy this element, and you will likely face a conviction.

  1. You Made Use of Violence, Threats, or Intimidation

Fear or physical force under PEN 215 means threatening to cause harm to the victim, their family, or assets. Fear usually has a forcible effect on most carjacking victims and can mean physical violence. The prosecutor satisfies this element by proving that your threats triggered sufficient fear in them, causing them to involuntarily agree to your demands of surrendering their vehicle.

It is essential to understand that even when the victim resisted your attempts to take the vehicle, it does not disaffirm that you used physical violence or intimidation to obtain it.

Besides, you will be guilty even when the victim was unaware you were accomplishing the carjacking by force or intimidation. For example, you risk a carjacking count when you take an automobile occupied by an infant or an unconscious individual. These individuals do not recognize your conduct. However, their failure to understand the nature of your action will not protect you from the charges and a possible guilty verdict.

  1. You Had Criminal Intent to Temporarily or Permanently Deprive

The DA should show that you had a specific motive to deny the owner of the car’s possession, momentarily or permanently. You must have purposed or planned to strip the holder of the vehicle of its use or enjoyment. Your intentions after taking the car are irrelevant. Whether you plan to sell it, keep it to yourself, or only borrow it for some time is irrelevant. All that is relevant to the jury is that you moved the automobile from the holder.

Carjacking Sentencing

Carjacking is chargeable as a felony. When convicted of this driving crime, you risk 36, 60, or 108 months of prison incarceration and monetary court fines not exceeding $10,000. The judge can even sentence you to formal probation with a mandatory twelve months of jail incarceration. The judge punishes each victim in the car, so your penalties will depend on the number of vehicle occupants during the carjacking.

The conditions you must abide by while on felony probation are:

  • Making frequent court appointments with your probation officer (PO).
  • Agree to random drug testing.
  • Relinquish your rights to unlawful search and seizure.

The PO can apprehend you anytime they believe you violate probation terms without requesting an arrest warrant from the court. If the officer captures you for a probation violation, you will remain behind bars until the court can rule whether the violation accusations are true.

Nevertheless, when the judge confirms that the probation violation accusations are true, they will revoke probation and send you to jail to serve the original sentence.

You should protect your rights and interests when accused of carjacking by retaining the services of a reputable defense lawyer.

Sentence Enhancement

In addition to the typical penalties for carjacking under PEN 215, particular circumstances, if present in your case, will increase your penalties, resulting in harsher punishment. The standard sentence or penalty enhancements you risk after a carjacking conviction are:

Carjacking Causing Substantial Bodily Harm

When another party suffers great bodily injury (GBI) during the commissioning of the carjacking, you risk sentence enhancement under PEN 12022.7. GBI means imposing substantial physical damage on an individual. The DA determines that your victim obtained GBI based on visible injuries, not emotional or financial damages.

Similarly, GBIs do not only include severe harm like paralysis and traumatic brain injuries. The victim’s injuries can be minor or temporary and qualify as GBI. There is no definite definition of GBI, so the prosecutor evaluates each case to determine if the harm sustained during the carjacking qualifies as substantial. The factors the DA considers are:

  • The degree and severity of the damage sustained.
  • The cost of medical treatment and
  • The pain and anguish stemming from the injuries.

Injuries that qualify as GBI are:

  • Broken or fractured bones like a broken nose, jaw, or arm.
  • Gunshot wounds.
  • A black eye visible for four months qualifies as GBI.
  • Burn injuries if you threw hot grease on the victim’s face during the driving offense.

On top of the standard penalties imposed for a PEN 215 violation conviction, you risk additional and subsequent 36 to 72 months in prison if the car owner or passenger you stole from suffered GBI.

Gang Enhancement

When you carjack a vehicle in association with or to promote a street gang, you will attract sentence enhancement. Also, when you violate PC 215 to benefit a gang, you risk harsher penalties provided under PEN 186.22. Per PC 186.22(b), when you commit a felony like carjacking with the motive of benefiting a gang, you risk mandatory penalty enhancement. The compulsory penalty increase is on top of and sequential to the original penalty imposed for a PEN 215 violation conviction.

Carjacking for the benefit of or in conjunction with a street gang will result in an additional and subsequent sentence of two to fifteen years in prison, depending on the specifics of your case. Your original sentence could be increased by twenty-five years to life in prison if you committed the PEN 215 violation while acting in your capacity as a street gang member. The enhancement can apply if you aided in the carjacking and did not commit the offense directly.

Use your Firearm, and you are Done

According to California PC 12022.53, you risk a penalty enhancement of ten, twenty, or twenty-five years if you use a firearm to threaten a passenger or driver during a carjacking. Brandishing the gun and using it to intimidate the victim will attract a penalty increase of ten years in addition to the original sentence. If you fire the weapon during the carjacking, you will draw an extra and successive twenty years of prison incarceration. When the victim suffers severe injuries from firearm use, the judge will impose an additional penalty ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment. The court will apply the same penalty enhancement when someone dies during the carjacking.

Three Strikes Rule

Also, you will add a strike to your record for a PEN 215 violation. A guilty verdict for any violent felony in California attracts a strike, and carjacking is among these felonies. With a strike, you must serve at most 85 percent of your prison term to qualify for parole.

The court will deem you a second criminal striker if you have a strike and add another to your record after a guilty verdict for an offense categorized as a strike. Under the circumstances, the judge will impose double the typical punishment provided for in the law.

The court will classify you as a third criminal striker when you already have two strikes and receive a subsequent sentence for a felony offense. With three strikes on your criminal record, the law imposes a prison term ranging from twenty-five years to life incarceration.

Senate Bill (SB) 1437

Furthermore, you risk a penalty increase of 25 years to life incarceration under the “felony murder rule” when someone loses their life because you shot them in a carjacking incident. The rule is outlined under SB 1437 and applies when you end a life when commissioning or attempting to commit a felony. Per this rule, killing another party during a PEN 215 violation attracts 1st-degree murder counts.

The law does not require the prosecutor to demonstrate that the victim died at the carjacking scene. The DA must only show that your conduct contributed to the victim’s demise, even though not directly. Showing you aided or abetted the death of a person is sufficient to attract penalty enhancement.

Removal or Deportation

A PEN 215 violation is an aggravated felony, and a guilty verdict for an alien can result in the penalty enhancement of deportation or removal from America with limited chances of re-admission. Regardless of how long you have lived in the country, a sentence for carjacking will trigger immediate deportation.

Carjacking is a crime of moral turpitude, and a guilty verdict will adversely affect your immigration status. So, when you are a non-citizen charged with carjacking, you should find a defense lawyer who understands immigration laws. Even if the court finds you guilty, the lawyer will tirelessly ensure you are not deported.

Kidnapping While Committing a PEN 215 Violation

Per PEN 209.5, kidnapping a driver or vehicle occupant when engaging in carjacking attracts a penalty enhancement of life incarceration. A violation of PC 209.5 is deemed an aggravated kidnapping, meaning you moved the victim in the car for a substantial distance from the crime scene.

The penalties for carjacking become harsher when sentence enhancement applies in your case. Therefore, hiring a lawyer to protect yourself from these life-changing penalties.

Fighting a Carjacking Count

You need a devoted and aggressive criminal lawyer to counter carjacking charges because the penalties are severe. Hiring a lawyer in the early stages of the case is critical in crafting solid defense strategies. The defenses your lawyer can apply to counter the DA’s assertions are:

  1. There was No Threats or Physical Force Involved in the Incident

You cannot be convicted of carjacking if you did not inflict fear or physical violence on the victim. The evidence your lawyer needs to show you did not apply violence or intimidation to take the vehicle includes surveillance footage of the incident. You will not be guilty of carjacking if you prove that no violence or fear was involved in the incident. However, the prosecutor can charge you with joyriding.

  1. You had Approval from the Car Holder

The DA must demonstrate you obtained the vehicle without permission to be guilty or against the passenger’s or driver’s will. Therefore, if your defense lawyer can show the court that you had approval to take the automobile, you will not be guilty. The court can dismiss your case or charge you with a lesser offense in this situation.

  1. You are a Victim of Misidentification

The primary cause of wrongful apprehensions and convictions in California is mistaken identity. PEN 215 violations are typically startling, and sometimes the victim could be confused after the traumatic incident to the extent they cannot accurately identify the culprit of the crime. Carjacking victims commonly misidentified suspects and wrongfully accuse them of crimes they did not commit, particularly if the alleged perpetrators meet the physical depiction of the actual perpetrator.

So, when police apprehend you for carjacking just because you meet the physical portrayal given by the victim, your lawyer can contest the charges by arguing that the victim misidentified you. Even when you are sure you never engaged in the driving crime, that will not be sufficient to prevent a conviction because the said victim has already put you at the crime scene.

You will require a profound lawyer to question the victim’s ability to identify the culprit. The lawyer can even request the court to order a lineup to challenge the victim’s purported ability to remember or recognize the offender. Your legal expert can even hire an expert witness to demonstrate to the jury that the description given by the victim about the perpetrator was inaccurate or that the explanations given by the victim for the identification are unreliable.

  1. You did not Take the Automobile from the Victim’s Direct Person or Immediate Presence

You are guilty under PC 215 if you take the vehicle in the holder’s immediate or direct presence. If you took possession of the car outside the holder’s immediate person, you are innocent of the carjacking charges. The holder, in this case, means the auto driver or occupant. Also, the holder can be the owner or person overseeing or controlling the vehicle.

It is worth understanding that your lawyer cannot use the claim of right as a valid defense in carjacking cases. Even when you are the car owner, the law makes it illegal to apply physical violence or intimidation to regain auto possession from another party. The reason is that PC 215 deems carjacking a criminal offense against vehicle possession, not ownership.

Related Offenses

Many crimes can be filed in association with carjacking. Based on your case’s nature, the court can file a crime alongside or instead of carjacking. These related offenses are:

California Robbery

Per PEN 211, taking a person’s property from their direct person or presence using fear or physical force is unlawful. Carjacking is robbing an individual of their vehicle. However, PC 215 exists to impose harsher punishment on individuals who steal a car, with robbery attracting at most 60 months behind bars, while carjacking is punishable by no more than 108 months in prison. You can face both charges, although, after a conviction, the law stays or sets aside the punishment for one crime and allows you to face punishment for the other crime.

Joyriding or Auto Theft

Joyriding is the illegal taking or driving of an individual’s car without consent. Like carjacking, the law focuses on unlawful taking or driving, not whether you plan to permanently deprive its owner of enjoyment. Also, the offense does not involve physical force or intimidation.

The offense is a wobbler, although it is commonly filed as a misdemeanor, which attracts at most twelve months of jail incarceration upon conviction. When filed as a felony, joyriding attracts 36 months in jail and court fines not exceeding $5,000. However, you will pay a monetary fine of at most $10,000 and 48 months of prison incarceration if the vehicle involved in the crime is an ambulance, police vehicle, or fire truck.

Auto Burglary

If the automobile you steal, joyride, or carjack is locked, the prosecutor could charge you with an additional crime of auto burglary. As a misdemeanor, the offense attracts twelve months in jail, while the punishment for a felony is 36 months of prison incarceration.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

PEN 487(d)(1) defines GTA as stealing a vehicle. The offense differs from carjacking in that GTA does not involve physical violence or fear, and to accomplish the crime, you must have planned to permanently deprive the owner of its use. On the other hand, carjacking must involve force or threats, and you must have intended to deny the vehicle owner its use or enjoyment momentarily or permanently.

GTA attracts twelve months of incarceration as a misdemeanor, while a felony attracts no more than 48 months in prison.

Find an Experienced Driving Crimes Lawyer Near Me

Carjacking is a severe driving crime with life-altering consequences. The penalties associated with the crime are harsh, so you should hire a lawyer to represent you. If you face PEN 215 violation counts in Fresno, the California Criminal Lawyer Group can help. Contact us today at 559-712-8377 for legal guidance and representation.