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Originally Posted by paulskinsfan
Oh he'll do time all right! Florida has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. I am a lawyer, and this whole thing is gonna come down to the credibility of the witnesses against Taylor. IF the only State witnesses are the thugs that he pointed the gun at, then the State's case could be pretty weak, unless of course Einstein gave a statement to the cops. If the state's case is weak, look for a plea to a misdemeanor and some jail time.
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Well, as a lawyer, I'm sure you are aware of how rare it is for the commission of a misdemeanor offense to lead to incarceration, particularly for a first-time offender, and particularly in a case with such mitigating circumstances.
Also, I'm sure you are aware of how flimsy a case can be when it is based on solely eyewitness accounts, as these are incredibly easy to discredit, especially by the crack defense team Taylor will assuredly retain.
And of course, tough or not, Florida's gun laws really won't end up applying once Taylor cops his plea, except perhaps as some sort of leverage on the part of the DA in the bargaining process. As you mention, he will plead to a misdemeanor (probably simple battery, which is the lesser of the charges, obviously), and the gun laws in Florida do not apply to misdemeanors; they only apply to certain felonies.
The end result is that he will almost certainly be serving no jail time. If he does, it will be something meaningless like a weekend, which would be part of the disposition only as a sort of "Scared Straight" ploy and a concession to the State for the purposes of PR.