Weapons Charges Lawyer in Mesa, AZ

Arizona keeps most of its weapons offenses in one statute, A.R.S. § 13-3102, which lists sixteen forms of misconduct involving weapons and requires that each be done knowingly. Because it mixes misdemeanors with serious felonies, the paragraph charged largely decides who prosecutes a Mesa case. The Mesa City Prosecutor's Office, 250 E. First Ave., Suite 222, describes its work as prosecuting misdemeanor crimes and city code violations within Mesa city limits, and the same page sends felonies that occur within Mesa to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. An inaccurate answer about a concealed weapon, or concealed carry by someone under 21, can therefore stay at 1st Avenue, while a prohibited possessor count leaves the city system entirely.

Mesa Police write many of the reports from inside the city, though DPS troopers work the freeways that cross it and the Sheriff's Office answers calls from county islands within its boundary. A misdemeanor from one of those reports can be assigned to a Mesa-area justice court instead of the city court.

On a Mesa Police case, the gun itself often goes to the department's crime lab. The department's Forensic Services Firearms Unit runs function testing on whether a firearm operates as designed, restores obliterated serial numbers, enters fired cartridge cases into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), and sends its examiners to testify. A firearm in permanently inoperable condition falls outside Arizona's definition of a firearm, and defacing a deadly weapon, or knowingly possessing a defaced one, is a separate class 6 felony, so a function test or a serial number report can shape what the State is able to charge.

After a Mesa Police arrest on a city misdemeanor, the Holding Facility keeps the person until the initial appearance, which the city holds every morning, weekends and holidays included. On non-city charges, such as a felony weapons count, the person is booked in Mesa first and later moved to the Sheriff's ITR facility on South 28th Drive in Phoenix. Rule 4.1 gives the system 24 hours from an arrest to bring the person before a judge, or the person has to be let go.

Many Mesa weapons cases begin with no booking at all. The officer may write a citation that carries a court date, or seize the gun, release the person and send the report on to a prosecutor who decides later; on a possible felony, the lab work and an out-of-state record check can come first. That gap is when a lawyer can still examine the stop and the status question. Once a felony is charged, the right to counsel attaches and the court will appoint a lawyer if none has been retained. On a city misdemeanor, the court's public defender page says no public defender is appointed before the first court appearance.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A weapons conviction can take your gun rights with it: a felony makes a person a prohibited possessor in Arizona until the right is restored, federal law adds a bar of its own, and even a misdemeanor weapons conviction can appear on a background check. If you are not a U.S. citizen, get immigration advice before accepting any plea.