Robbery Attorney in Edison, Middlesex County

Reviewed by William A. Proetta, Esq. · Updated October 2026

Under N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1, robbery is a 2nd-degree crime punished by 5 to 10 years in state prison, rising to 1st degree, 10 to 20 years, when the person is armed, uses or threatens a deadly weapon, tries to kill, or purposely causes or tries to cause serious bodily injury. Either way, the No Early Release Act applies: 85% of the sentence must be served before parole is possible.

The amount taken plays no part in the grade. A $20 phone grab and a bank holdup can carry the same degree. Every robbery complaint in Middlesex County, whether it comes from Edison, New Brunswick, Woodbridge or North Brunswick, is prosecuted by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office in the Superior Court at New Brunswick. Our Edison office defends these cases, and I have spent more than 15 years trying criminal matters. Many robbery charges are theft cases with a disputed moment of force, and that moment is where the defense starts.

What Turns a Theft Into a Robbery

The State must prove a theft or attempted theft, plus one of three aggravating acts committed “in the course of” it:

1. Force or injury. The person inflicted bodily injury on, or used force upon, another person.
2. Threat or fear. The person threatened another with immediate bodily injury, or purposely put someone in fear of it.
3. A serious crime. The person committed, or threatened immediately to commit, any 1st- or 2nd-degree crime.

“In the course of committing a theft”

The phrase covers the attempt and the immediate flight afterward. Three consequences follow:

• The theft does not have to succeed. A person who demands money and leaves empty-handed can still be charged with robbery.
• Force during the getaway counts. In State v. Mirault, 92 N.J. 492 (1983), the Supreme Court read the flight language literally and held that “another” includes a responding police officer or anyone else, not only the owner of the property.
• The intent to steal must come first. In State v. Lopez, 187 N.J. 91 (2006), the Court held that the purpose to steal must exist before or at the same moment as the force. If a fight happens and someone takes a wallet afterward as an afterthought, that is assault and theft, not robbery.

How much force

Snatching is not automatically robbery. In State v. Sein, 124 N.J. 209 (1991), the Court held that the force must be more than what is needed to take the property and must be directed at the victim. A purse pulled off a shoulder without a struggle is theft from the person, a 3rd-degree crime, rather than robbery.

What makes it 1st degree

Under 2C:15-1(b), robbery is 1st degree if, during the theft, the person attempted to kill anyone, purposely inflicted or attempted to inflict serious bodily injury, or was armed with, used or threatened the immediate use of a deadly weapon. A deadly weapon includes an object that the victim reasonably believes is one because of how the person acted or what he said, such as a hand in a pocket shaped like a gun with the words “I have a gun.” Whether words and gestures were enough is a frequent fight in 1st-degree cases.

No “it was my money” defense

Collecting a debt by force is still robbery. In State v. Mejia, 141 N.J. 475 (1995), the Supreme Court held that the claim-of-right defense available in ordinary theft cases does not apply to robbery.

Robbery Grades Compared With the Fallback Charges

The two bottom rows are the realistic targets when force is disputed. Our carjacking page covers the separate statute for taking a vehicle from its driver.

Sentencing Exposure and What Follows a Conviction

NERA. Robbery of either degree is listed in 2C:43-7.2. Under the No Early Release Act, 85% of the sentence imposed is served before parole eligibility, and release is followed by parole supervision of 5 years for 1st degree or 3 years for 2nd. A 5-year robbery sentence means about 4 years and 3 months before parole.

Graves Act. If a firearm was used or possessed during the robbery or the immediate flight, N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6(c) requires a minimum term of one-half of the sentence or 42 months, whichever is greater, without parole; when the NERA 85% is longer, it controls.

Presumption of prison. Both degrees carry a presumption of imprisonment under N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(d)(1).

The one-degree-lower sentence. P.L.2026, c.30, retroactive to January 20, 2026, restored the downgrade at 2C:44-1(d)(2). If the judge is clearly convinced that the mitigating factors substantially outweigh the aggravating factors and the interest of justice demands it, a 2nd-degree robbery can be sentenced in the 3rd-degree range of 3 to 5 years, and a 1st-degree robbery in the 2nd-degree range. The State has 10 days to appeal such a sentence. For many first-time defendants, this is the most important sentencing argument in the case, and it is built from employment records, family obligations, character letters and the facts of the incident.

Fines and restitution. Fines can reach $200,000 for 1st degree and $150,000 for 2nd. Restitution of the property or its value is routine.

Expungement. Robbery is one of the offenses barred from expungement under 2C:52-2(b). A conviction is permanent, which is why avoiding a robbery conviction, even at the cost of pleading to a lesser theft count, can matter more than the sentence.

Companion counts. Store cases often include aggravated assault on a retail worker under 2C:12-1(b)(5)(l): 3rd degree with bodily injury, otherwise 4th.

Immigration. Federal law treats some violent offenses with a sentence of a year or more as aggravated felonies. A non-citizen should have an immigration attorney review any robbery plea before it is entered; our page on immigration consequences gives the background.

How Robbery Cases Move Through Middlesex County

Common fact patterns. Many Middlesex robbery charges do not involve a weapon at all. A shoplifting stop at a mall on Route 1 turns into a robbery count when the person pulls free from a loss-prevention employee in the parking lot. An online sale arranged to meet in an Edison or Woodbridge parking area ends in a dispute over the item and the cash. Two acquaintances near Rutgers–New Brunswick argue over a debt and one takes the other’s phone. Each of these raises a Sein, Lopez or Mejia question that can change the charge. Our shoplifting page covers the store cases that never cross that line.

Arrest and detention. When police proceed on a complaint-warrant rather than a summons, the accused waits for a first appearance at the county jail on Apple Orchard Lane in North Brunswick. The prosecutor can ask the court to keep the person held until trial, which leads to a detention hearing. A stable address, work history and a voluntary surrender are the facts that answer that motion; see our guide to pretrial release and detention.

The evidence. Detectives usually rely on store and street cameras along corridors such as Route 1 and Route 9, phone records, social media messages that set up a meeting, and identification procedures with the victim. Statements given at the police station are often the strongest evidence the State has, which is why our guide to police questioning advises saying nothing until counsel is present.

Grand jury and the Paterson Street courthouse. After the detention stage, the MCPO presents the case to a grand jury in New Brunswick. That presentation, and the weeks before it, are the best window to show the prosecutor why the case is really theft from the person or simple theft. Once indicted, the case is arraigned at 56 Paterson Street and moves through pretrial conferences toward a plea cutoff. Our page on the Middlesex County Superior Court describes those steps.

Juveniles. A robbery charge against someone under 18 starts in the Family Part, not the adult court; see our Middlesex juvenile defense page.

Is PTI Possible on a Robbery Charge

PTI is presumptively unavailable for 1st- and 2nd-degree crimes, and robbery is always one or the other. The prosecutor must consent before the application can even be considered, the applicant must show compelling reasons, and admission requires a guilty plea held in abeyance. In practice, the path to diversion runs through an amendment: if the prosecutor agrees to downgrade the charge to 3rd-degree theft from the person or another theft count, a first offender can then apply for PTI through the Middlesex Criminal Division before the first case disposition conference after arraignment. The facts that persuade a prosecutor to amend are the same ones that defeat the robbery element: minimal force, no injury, and a dispute that began before anything was taken.

Defenses to a Robbery Charge

• No robbery-level force. A grab or a pull aimed at the property, not the person, points to theft from the person under Sein.
• Afterthought. If the force came first for another reason and the taking came later, Lopez removes the robbery.
• Not immediate flight. Force used well after the theft ended, away from the scene, may be outside “in the course of.”
• No weapon, real or apparent. Without words or conduct creating a reasonable belief in a weapon, a 1st-degree count should fall to 2nd.
• Mistaken identification. Stranger identifications made under stress, at night or after a brief encounter are a recurring weak point; the procedure used is open to challenge.
• Accomplice limits. A companion who did not share the purpose to steal, or who only helped afterward, is not guilty of robbery as an accomplice.

Call a New Brunswick Robbery Attorney

Do not give a statement, post about the incident or contact the complaining witness. Call our Edison office at (732) 659-9600 at any hour, or send us a message.