Weapons Charges Lawyer in Tempe, AZ

Arizona gathers nearly every gun and knife crime into A.R.S. 13-3102, misconduct involving weapons. Each of its sixteen paragraphs needs a knowing act, and the penalties climb from a class 3 misdemeanor to a class 2 felony. For a Tempe arrest, the paragraph on the paperwork usually points to the prosecutor and the building.

The Fifth Street track. Tempe Municipal Court, 140 E. Fifth Street, takes misdemeanor and criminal traffic matters arising inside Tempe, and the City Attorney's Criminal Division (the Prosecutor's Office) works from Suite 301 upstairs. Weapons counts that can be heard there include concealed carry before age 21, misleading an officer who asks whether you carry a concealed deadly weapon, bringing one into a polling place on election day, and refusing a reasonable request to store a weapon at a public event or inside a government-run structure. When DPS or the Sheriff's Office wrote the report, a county justice court can get the misdemeanor instead. Go by the court your paperwork names.

The county track. Knowing possession of a deadly weapon while prohibited is charged as a class 4 felony, and the same class covers a prohibited weapon or a deadly weapon during a drug felony. Concealed carry in furtherance of a felony and a defaced weapon are class 6 felonies. These counts leave city hands. Most go to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The Arizona Attorney General's Office brings a smaller group, typically matters that cross a county boundary, started with a state agency, or were handed over by the County Attorney. Superior Court receives the case through a grand jury indictment or a preliminary hearing, never by way of a justice court, and hears it downtown in either the Central Court Building, 201 W. Jefferson St., or the South Court Tower, 175 W. Madison St. Confirm the building on your current notice.

The federal track. Under 18 U.S.C. 922(g), Congress bars its own list of people from firearms and ammunition, a list that overlaps Arizona's but differs in places. Each sovereign's prosecutors decide independently, so a single Tempe firearm can bring one prosecution, the other, or two at once. Nova Law Group appears in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. We handle these matters whichever office brought the charge.

Booked or cited. For a person held in county custody on a felony weapons count, the first court hearing happens at the county's Intake, Transfer and Release facility, 2670 S. 28th Dr., and Rule 4.1 sets 24 hours from arrest as the outer limit for that hearing, after which release is required. Felony defendants who cannot pay a lawyer are entitled to appointed counsel, but that lawyer arrives at court, after the questions about ownership, origin and your record have usually been asked. Many Tempe gun cases skip the jail altogether: a citation carries the court date, or officers hold the firearm, let you leave, and route a report to a prosecutor. Silence afterward does not mean the matter is over, and that lull is a good time to collect restoration orders and discharge papers.

Where the gun goes. Tempe Police describe a Property & Evidence unit that stores, tracks and manages seized items under chain of custody standards, and a Forensic Services Unit that collects, examines and analyzes evidence. Whether your firearm was examined, and what the logs show, can matter to both possession and the weapon's condition.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A felony conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor in Arizona until the right is restored, a judge decides restoration under A.R.S. 13-910, and that statute closes the door after a dangerous offense and requires a ten-year wait from absolute discharge after a serious offense. If you are not a U.S. citizen, get immigration advice before any plea.

The felony calendar. A.R.S. 13-604 lets a judge treat only class 6 felonies as misdemeanors, so a class 4 prohibited possessor count cannot use it, though a negotiated plea to another offense is sometimes possible. For a non-dangerous class 6 count, the judge may instead record a class 1 misdemeanor judgment or hold off designating it until probation is done, unless two or more felony priors stand in the way.