Penal Code § 211 PC – Robbery – California Law & Penalties

California Penal Code § 211 PC prohibits robbery, which is “the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from his person or immediate presence, and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear.” Robbery is a felony punishable by up to 9 years in state prison.

Examples

• Holding up a cashier with a gun.
• Breaking into a house and threatening the residents with a knife before stealing their TV.
• Drugging someone and stealing their possessions while they are unconscious.
• After being caught stealing, threatening the owner with physical harm in order to escape.

Penalties

The following chart outlines the potential punishments of a PC 211 conviction.

Type of Robbery in California	Felony Sentence
First-degree robbery, which is robbery of: any driver or passenger on a bus, taxi, streetcar, subway, cable car, etc., any person in an inhabited structure, or any person who has just used an ATM and is still in the vicinity of the ATM.	felony (formal) probation; 3, 4, or 6 years in state prison; and/or up to $10,000. However, first-degree robbery in an inhabited structure in concert with two or more other people carries 3, 6, or 9 years in state prison.
Second-degree robbery, which is all other types of robbery	felony (formal) probation; 2, 3, or 5 years in state prison; and/or up to $10,000.

Robbery is often abbreviated as PC 211, 211 PC or 211 CPC – which are short for the California Penal Code. The crime is also referred to as Police Code 211.

To help you better understand the crime of robbery, our California criminal defense attorneys will address the following:

• 1. Elements
• 2. Penalties
• 3. Defenses
• 4. Related Offenses
• Victim Resources

1. Elements

The elements of robbery are spelled out in California Jury Instruction “CALCRIM” 1600. For you to be convicted of robbery, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following six elements:

1. You took property that was not your own;
2. The property was in the possession of another person;
3. You took the property from the other person or their immediate presence;
4. You took the property against that person’s will;
5. You used fear or force to take the property or prevent the other person from resisting; and
6. When you used fear or force to take the property, you intended to deprive the owner of it either permanently or for a long enough time to deprive them of a major portion of its value.¹

Let’s take a closer look at some of these terms.

Taking Property

You “take” someone else’s property when you both:

1. gain possession of it, and
2. move it some distance—even a very short distance.²

In the Possession of Another Person

“Possession” does not have to mean holding or touching property. It is enough to have control over it or the right to control it (“constructive possession”).³

Also, the victim does not have to own the property that is stolen—they need only to possess it.⁴ For example, a store clerk or other business employee is considered to have possession of the inventory.⁵

From the Other Person or their Immediate Presence

A robbery occurs only if the defendant takes the property directly from the victim or their “immediate presence.”⁶

Property is considered to be in a person’s “immediate presence” if it is within their physical control, such that they would have been able to keep possession of it if the robbery had not occurred.⁷

Example: Bill confronts Victor outside of Victor’s home, which is several miles away from Victor’s jewelry store. Bill threatens to shoot Victor unless he tells him the combination to a safe at the jewelry store.

Victor tells Bill the combination, and Bill then calls his friend Andrea, who is at the jewelry store. She uses the combination to open the safe and steal jewelry.

Here, Bill and Andrea are innocent of robbery because they did not take the property from Victor’s immediate presence. Instead, they are guilty of grand theft and assault.⁸

Against the Property Owner’s Will

You are considered to have taken property against the owner’s will if they do not consent to you taking it. Consent must be given freely by someone who understands what they are doing.⁹

So, for example, if you threaten a person with a gun and they run away—and you then take their property that they left behind—you have committed robbery. You took their property without consent, even though they did not know you were doing so.

Use of Force or Fear

Robbery is distinguished from other California theft crimes by the fact that robbery always involves the use of “force or fear.”¹⁰

Force means physical force. According to Penal Code 212 PC, fear means fear of injury, to either:

• the victim themself,
• a family member of the victim,
• the victim’s property, or
• someone else present during the incident.¹¹

Interestingly, California courts have held that force or fear is used—and a robbery is deemed to have occurred—if the defendant drugs the victim and then takes their property.¹²

Example: Doug meets Christine in a bar, and she invites him back to her house for coffee. Doug then slips a sedative into Christine’s coffee. After she passes out, he searches her house for money and valuables and then leaves with these.

Doug is guilty of robbery even though his drugging of Christine was an unusual form of “force or fear.”¹³

However, the slight, harmless touching that occurs when a pickpocket takes something off of someone’s person does NOT count as “force or fear.” So a pickpocket would not be guilty of robbery but rather grand theft.¹⁴

Intent to Deprive the Owner of the Property

Finally, robbery is a specific intent crime. This means you only commit the crime if—at the time the robbery occurred—you intended to deprive the victim of their property, either:

1. permanently, or
2. for a long enough period of time that the owner would be deprived of a major portion of its value or enjoyment.¹⁵

2. Penalties

California’s penalties for robbery – which are outlined in Penal Code 213 PC – depend on whether it is classified as “first-degree” or “second-degree.”¹⁶

First-Degree Robbery

California robbery in the first degree is when any of the following is true:

1. The victim is a driver or passenger of a bus, taxi, cable car, streetcar, trackless trolley, subway, or other similar transportation for hire;
2. The robbery takes place in an inhabited house, boat, or trailer; or
3. The robbery takes place while or immediately after the victim uses an ATM.¹⁷

A house or structure is “inhabited” if someone lives there and either is present, or has left but intends to return.¹⁸

First-degree robbery in California is punished as a felony, carrying:

• felony (formal) probation;
• 3, 4, or 6 years in state prison; and/or
• up to $10,000.¹⁹

However, if you commit first-degree robbery in an inhabited structure in concert with two or more other people, then the prison sentence increases to three, six, or nine years.²⁰

Second-Degree Robbery

California robbery in the second degree is any robbery that does not meet the definition of first-degree robbery.²¹

Also a felony, second-degree robbery carries:

• felony probation;
• 2, 3, or 5 years in state prison; and/or
• a fine of up to $10,000.²²

Robbery with Multiple Victims

A count of robbery is determined by how many victims there are—NOT how many items of property you take.²³

So if you apply force or fear to two people in order to steal the wallet of one of them, you will be charged with two counts of robbery.

However, if you steal multiple items of property from one person (for example, a piece of jewelry AND a cell phone), you will only be charged with one count of robbery.

Sentence Enhancements

In addition to the above penalties, there are various sentence enhancements that may add to the consequences of a Penal Code 211 conviction. These include the following

Penal Code 12022.7 PC – Great Bodily Injury

If, while committing a robbery, you cause another person to suffer a “great bodily injury” (defined as a substantial physical injury), then you could be subject to California’s great bodily injury enhancement.²⁴

This sentencing enhancement can add an additional three to six years to your robbery sentence.²⁵

Penal Code 12022.53 PC – “10-20-Life Use a Gun and You’re Done”

California’s “10-20-life use a gun and you’re done” law provides for significantly longer sentences for defendants who use a gun in the commission of a robbery.²⁶

Specifically, you receive an extra:

• 10 years for personally using a firearm in a robbery;
• 20 years for personally and intentionally firing a gun during a robbery; and
• 25 years to life if you cause a person great bodily injury or death with a firearm during a robbery.²⁷

California’s Three Strikes Law

Robbery is considered a violent felony and therefore a “strike offense” under California’s “three strikes” law.²⁸

This means that if you have a robbery conviction and are subsequently charged with any California felony, you will face twice the normal sentence for that felony.²⁹

Then if you accumulate three “strike” convictions—one or more of which may be a robbery conviction—then you will receive a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.³⁰

3. Defenses

Here at Shouse Law Group, we have represented literally thousands of people charged with robbery. In our experience, the following four defenses have proven very effective with judges, juries, and prosecutors at having these charges reduced or dismissed in the pretrial process.

You Did Not Use Force or Fear to Take the Property

According to Riverside criminal defense attorney Michael Scafiddi:³¹

“The use of ‘force or fear’ is probably the key element distinguishing robbery from other California theft crimes. If the prosecutors cannot prove this element, then robbery charges cannot stick. The defendant may still be convicted of another theft crime—but the others usually carry lesser penalties and less stigma than robbery.”

Just become someone was intimidated by you does not mean you used force or fear to take their property. In cases where there is no video or eyewitness evidence, prosecutors will have a hard time proving you used force or fear to take property.

You Honestly Believed You Had a Right to the Property

If you rob someone because you honestly believe the property you are taking belongs to you, then California law excuses the robbery. This is known as the “claim of right” defense.³²

The claim of right defense applies even if your belief that you have a right to the property is mistaken or unreasonable.³³ However, it does not apply to robberies that are committed for the purposed of settling debts.³⁴

Example: Hal gives his wife $200 to pay some bills. Then when he realizes his wife plans to give the money to her mother, he demands it back. She puts the cash in her bra, and Hal wrestles her to get the money.

Hal may not be guilty of robbery even though he used force to take money from his wife. This is because he believed that he had a right to take the money back from her.³⁵

You Are a Victim of Mistaken Identity

Robbery defendants are often charged after the victim identifies them in a pretrial lineup—a process that leads to many mistakes and false accusations.

In many other robbery cases, the perpetrator was wearing a mask or other disguise—which means that a defendant is identified based on:

• clothes,
• height/weight, or
• other flimsy pieces of evidence.

We know how to evaluate the prosecution’s case to see if it is based on unreliable circumstantial evidence. We can fight the charges by pointing out the holes in the state’s evidence and reminding the jury that they may not convict unless they are 100% certain they have the right man or woman.

You Were Falsely Accused

Someone might falsely accuse you of robbery for any number of reasons. Maybe the actual perpetrator is trying to cover up their own guilt. Maybe an angry or jealous ex-spouse is trying to gain control over you.

This is another situation where we would need to conduct a thorough investigation into the facts of what actually occurred.

4. Related Offenses

• Penal Code 207 PC – kidnapping
• Penal Code 215 PC – carjacking
• Penal Code 487 PC – grand theft
• Penal Code 488 PC – petty theft
• Penal Code 459.5 PC – shoplifting
• Penal Code 518 PC – extortion

Victim Resources

• The California Victim Compensation Program – state program that provides financial compensation to eligible victims of violent crimes in California.
• VINElink – National Victim Notification Network, provides victims of crime access to current information regarding offenders and resources.
• California Attorney General’s Victim’s Services Unit – state division that provides support, resources, and advocacy for crime victims and their families throughout California’s criminal justice process.

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