RE: A friend of mine is in trouble.
I've been thinking over the past day or so about this post, and I think wideone sums it up well. While a lawyer may not be able to get your friend off the hook, they will at least have a lot of experience in bargaining for sentence. Perhaps, if your friend were to plead guilty, a good laywer could bargain his sentence down to something reasonable and fair.
Good luck to your friend. And let us all know how it turns out. I for one am interested in how it is handled by the state.