First offense im so scared?!?

My friend and I got released from jail this morning after getting caught changing prices at work for about 600 dollars. we are both 18, he is in high school and i am a freshman in college. we confessed to our store security and wrote down our confessment and signed a paying agreement where we will slowly pay off our debts. but the security said because of the dollar amount that we need to talk to the police and got cuffed outside of the store... cop investigated me and said it was a felony and they sent me to county jail after the station...we spent the night in there and got O.R and got released at 5 am i am so terrified and do not know what to do, whether to get an attorney or not even though i am going to plead guilty and what will the judge say

to the criminal defense investigator, is there any other way i can contact u? email?

Don't do anything except get an attorney!!! You do not have to plead guilty!!!!!!!

Your attorney will ask the court for a "set aside", or whatever it's called in your state. That puts your case on the back burner for a determined amount of time, if you keep your nose clean and no new charges come in during that time, your case is dismissed. NO RECORD. NO CONVICTION.

Again, DO NOT PLEAD GUILTY TO THIS!!! GET A LAWYER!

Do not enter a plea without consulting an attorney.

You should definitely talk to an attorney- he may be able to sweeten your plea bargain. But if you signed a confession- unless you can show you were compelled to or under duress- you're probably stuck with the charge. Judges tend to be lenient with first time offenders. It's not like you committed a sex or violent crime. You'll be ok. You're in college, trying to get an education. I'm sure you'll have to pay a fine, but you may be able to get the charge expunged from your record. See if your state has a PTI (pre-trial intervention) program, and see if you're eligible for that. And don't feel too bad, your life isn't over. This mistake probably won't come back to haunt you too hard. Good luck!

If you can afford an attorney, then you should go consult with them as soon as possible. If, however, you can not afford an attorney, then there is nothing for you to do until your first court appearance. You will then be asked if you can afford an attorney, and they will assign a public defender to your case.
Procedures vary from county to county, but here is generally what you can expect for a felony case:

Your first appearance will be your arraignment. They will read the charge against you. Then you or a public defender will plead not guilty. You're generally not allowed to plead guilty at this point. You will then be given a date to come back to court for a preliminary hearing. Often you will be offered a plea bargain deal at the preliminary hearing. If not, or if you refuse the deal, the state will proceed to present their evidence to convince the judge that there is sufficient evidence to hold you over for trial. The matter will then be held over to Superior Court and you will get another court date. You will then have a pre-trial hearing in Superior Court. You may be offered another plea bargain agreement at this stage. The judge, D.A., and your legal representative will discuss the case to determine whether it should be a trial by jury or judge, the expected length of the trial, and a summary of what they intend to present at trial. You will then be ordered to come back for a trial. You will almost always be offered yet another plea bargain agreement at this stage. If not, or if you refuse the deal, then they will proceed with the trial.

By the way, do not miss or appear late for any of your court dates. This will result in a bench warrant and you will be taken back to jail.

If this is your first offense, you will most likely be placed on formal probation, ordered to pay restitution, and may be given community service. I've seen 6 month sentences given to first-time offenders for grand theft, however, so let's hope the judge doesn't want to make an example out of you.

Since you are not in custody, you can expect the whole process to be long and slow. You will likely not be finished with court and sentenced for about a year from now. It should be an interesting experience and, hopefully, you will learn from it.

You should probably get an attorney.

If you don't have an attorney, it's going to be you just show up at the hearing and plead and get sentenced. You won't have any idea what they will do till they do it.

If you have an attorney, the plea will be worked out before you enter it, and you'll know what the prosecutor will recommend, which more often than not is what the judge will give you. You'll know beforehand what is likely to happen. In addition, the judge isn't going to have time to listen to you say how sorry you are and how you're really basically a good kid, but the prosecutor will at least listen to your attorney explain all that.

You'll do better with an attorney.