Robbery Charges in Florida: How Force Turns Theft Into a Much More Serious Felony

Robbery in Florida is the taking of money or property from another person’s presence or custody, with intent to deprive them of it, when the taking involves force, violence, assault, or putting the victim in fear. Under Section 812.13, Florida Statutes, that single added element — force or fear — is what separates robbery from theft, and it changes everything about how the case is charged. Robbery committed without a weapon is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Carry any weapon and it becomes a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years. Carry a firearm or other deadly weapon and the maximum rises to life imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum sentence that a judge cannot go below. The dollar value of what was taken — the number that drives every theft case — does not matter here at all. This article explains what the State has to prove, how the degree is set, how robbery differs from its close statutory relatives, and where these cases are actually won or lost.

What separates robbery from theft

Theft and robbery share the same core act — taking someone else’s property with intent to deprive them of it — but robbery adds a second element theft does not require: force, violence, assault, or fear, used in the course of the taking. That difference is not cosmetic. It is the reason a $20 phone snatched from someone’s hand can be prosecuted far more seriously than a $19,000 embezzlement.

	Theft (§ 812.014)	Robbery (§ 812.13)	Burglary (§ 810.02)
Core allegation	Taking or using property with intent to deprive	Taking property from a person, using force, violence, assault, or fear	Entering/remaining somewhere with intent to commit an offense inside
Is force or fear required?	No	Yes — the element that defines the crime	No
Does location matter?	No	No — robbery is defined by the taking, not a place	Yes — the whole charge turns on entering a dwelling, structure, or conveyance
Does the value of the property matter?	Yes — value sets the degree	No — any taking by force is at least a 2nd-degree felony	No
Lowest possible charge	2nd-degree misdemeanor	2nd-degree felony	3rd-degree felony

That last row is worth sitting with: there is no misdemeanor robbery in Florida. Unlike theft, where the charge starts as low as a $500 fine, the presence of force or fear puts the floor at a second-degree felony the moment the State can prove it — regardless of whether anything of real value changed hands. For the value-driven grading that governs ordinary theft, see Grand Theft Charges in Florida; for how location and intent drive an entirely different charge, see Burglary Charges in Florida.

What the State actually has to prove

Under § 812.13(1), robbery has four elements: (1) the defendant took money or property that could be the subject of larceny, (2) from the person or custody of another, (3) with intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the person or owner of it, and (4) in the course of the taking there was the use of force, violence, assault, or putting in fear.

A few things about that definition matter in real cases:

• “Putting in fear” does not require a spoken threat. An implied threat — a demand note, a raised fist, an aggressive approach — can satisfy the element if it would put a reasonable person in fear. The State does not have to prove the victim was actually terrified, only that the circumstances were objectively threatening.
• The force does not have to be severe. Florida courts have long distinguished robbery from a more serious use of force by holding that only the resistance actually offered, or overcome, needs to be shown — not injury. That is also why Florida carved out a separate, lower-penalty offense for takings with minimal force (robbery by sudden snatching), covered below.
• Timing is defined broadly — and heavily litigated. Under § 812.13(3), an act is “in the course of committing the robbery” if it happens during an attempt or during flight after the attempt or the completed taking, and an act is “in the course of the taking” if it happens before, during, or after the taking and forms a continuous series of events with it. That language is what allows force used to escape — not just force used to take the property — to support a robbery charge. Where the taking was already complete and force arose later, in an unconnected encounter, whether the statute still reaches it is one of the more fact-intensive fights in these cases, and it deserves a close look from counsel in any case where the alleged force came after the property was already in hand.
• Attempted robbery is its own, lower-degree charge. Florida’s general attempt statute, § 777.04, applies to robbery the same as any other felony — an attempt is generally punished one degree below the completed offense.

Degrees and penalties

Robbery’s degree turns on one thing: what, if anything, the offender carried during the offense. Value is irrelevant.

What the offender carried	Degree	Statutory basis	Maximum penalty
No weapon	2nd-degree felony	§ 812.13(2)(c)	15 years prison, $10,000 fine
A weapon (not a firearm or deadly weapon)	1st-degree felony	§ 812.13(2)(b)	30 years prison, $10,000 fine
A firearm or other deadly weapon	1st-degree felony	§ 812.13(2)(a)	Up to life imprisonment

Maximums per § 775.082 and § 775.083. Two points the table cannot show:

• A firearm changes more than the maximum. Florida’s “10-20-Life” law, § 775.087, applies mandatory minimum sentences to certain enumerated forcible felonies committed with a firearm — reported minimums of 10 years for possessing the firearm during the offense, 20 years if it is discharged, and 25 years to life if discharge causes great bodily harm or death. A mandatory minimum sets a floor a judge cannot sentence below; it does not raise the statutory maximum. Whether robbery is on the current enumerated list, and the exact figures, should be confirmed against the current statutory text before relying on them in any specific case.
• An unarmed robbery is rarely eligible for the shortest limitations period. Under § 775.15, Florida generally gives the State 3 years to prosecute a second-degree felony and 4 years for a first-degree felony, but there is no time limit at all for an offense punishable by life imprisonment. Because armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon is life-eligible, it may never expire; the exact line between the tiers is a detail worth confirming with counsel in any case involving an older allegation.

Robbery’s close relatives: sudden snatching, home invasion, and carjacking

Florida did not stop at one robbery statute. Three related offenses share robbery’s core structure but adjust the elements — and the penalty — for a specific fact pattern.

Offense	What makes it different	Unarmed	Armed (weapon)	Armed (firearm/deadly weapon)
Robbery (§ 812.13)	The baseline: taking from a person by force, violence, assault, or fear	2nd-degree felony, 15 yrs	1st-degree felony, 30 yrs	1st-degree felony, up to life
Robbery by sudden snatching (§ 812.131)	Taking directly from the victim’s person where the victim becomes aware of the taking — the State does not have to prove force beyond what was needed to grab the item, or any resistance or injury	3rd-degree felony, 5 yrs	—	2nd-degree felony, 15 yrs
Carjacking (§ 812.133)	Same force/fear elements as robbery, but the property taken is specifically a motor vehicle	1st-degree felony, 30 yrs	1st-degree felony, 30 yrs	1st-degree felony, up to life
Home-invasion robbery (§ 812.135)	The offender enters a dwelling with intent to rob, and does rob an occupant inside	1st-degree felony, 30 yrs	1st-degree felony, 30 yrs	1st-degree felony, up to life

The pattern is not intuitive, and it matters:

• Sudden snatching is graded lower than ordinary robbery, not higher — because it drops the force/fear element down to bare minimum contact (a purse grabbed off a shoulder, a phone pulled from a hand) rather than a threat or struggle. It exists precisely so that low-force takings aren’t automatically punished at robbery’s full severity.
• Carjacking has no unarmed second-degree tier at all. Take a wallet by force with no weapon and the charge is a 15-year second-degree felony. Take a car the same way, with no weapon, and the charge is a 30-year first-degree felony. The Legislature treats a forced vehicle-taking as categorically more serious than a forced taking of anything else.
• Home-invasion robbery is first-degree at every tier, with the unarmed version already capped at 30 years — the same maximum as an armed ordinary robbery. Entering a home to commit the robbery is itself the aggravating fact.

What a robbery case looks like from the inside

Robbery cases follow the same procedural arc as other Florida felonies — arrest, first appearance, the State’s filing decision, arraignment, and discovery, which we walk through in What Do Pending Criminal Charges Mean in Florida?. Within that arc, robbery cases tend to turn on a few recurring issues:

• Identity. Robbery is frequently a stranger-on-stranger crime, and eyewitness identification — often made under stress, at night, or briefly — is a common point of challenge.
• Whether force or fear was actually present. A confrontational taking is not automatically a robbery; the State still has to connect specific conduct to the force/fear element, and a disputed, ambiguous, or after-the-fact use of force is genuinely litigable.
• The timing of the force. As described above, force used well after a taking was complete, in a separate encounter, raises a real question about whether the statute reaches it at all.
• The weapon allegation. Whether an object qualifies as a “weapon” or a “deadly weapon” — and whether the offender actually carried it, versus merely being alleged to have had access to one — can be the difference between a 15-year and a life-eligible charge.
• Diversion and the charging decision. For a first-time accused facing the unarmed, second-degree version, early defense work can influence whether the case is filed at that degree at all, or resolved through Florida’s pretrial intervention framework under § 948.08 where eligibility allows it. The full range of ways a case can end is covered in How to Get Criminal Charges Dropped in Florida.

A robbery conviction of any degree is a felony record with the consequences that follow any felony — loss of certain civil rights, a permanent record visible to employers, and, where a case ends without a conviction, a possible path to sealing described in If Charges Are Dismissed, Do You Have a Criminal Record?

The bottom line

Robbery is not a harsher version of theft — it is a different crime, built on an element theft does not have: force, violence, assault, or fear used to take property from a person. That element is what puts a floor of a second-degree felony under every robbery charge regardless of value, and what a weapon allegation can push all the way to a life-eligible first-degree felony. Whether the force/fear element is actually met, whether it was connected in time to the taking, and what — if anything — was carried are the questions that decide where a robbery case really lands. If you or someone you know has been arrested for robbery, sudden snatching, carjacking, or home-invasion robbery in Broward County or elsewhere in South Florida, the time to get a defense attorney involved is before the State’s filing decision, not after. MK Law’s partners are trial attorneys who defend robbery and theft cases across South Florida — contact us or call 954.865.6032, available 24/7.

Frequently asked questions

Is robbery always a felony in Florida?

Yes. Unlike theft, which starts as a misdemeanor, robbery has no misdemeanor tier at all — the unarmed version is already a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years. Adding a weapon raises it to a first-degree felony, and a firearm or deadly weapon can make it punishable by up to life.

What’s the real difference between robbery and theft in Florida?

Theft is the taking itself; robbery is theft plus force, violence, assault, or putting the victim in fear during the taking. Because of that added element, robbery’s penalties are not based on the value of the property taken the way theft’s are — a low-value item taken by force can be charged more seriously than a much more valuable item taken without force. See Grand Theft Charges in Florida for how theft is graded instead.

Can I be charged with robbery if I didn’t use a weapon?

Yes. Unarmed robbery is still a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years. Carrying a weapon, and especially a firearm or other deadly weapon, raises the degree and the maximum penalty, but a weapon is not required for the charge to exist in the first place.

What is robbery by sudden snatching, and how is it different from robbery?

Robbery by sudden snatching (§ 812.131) covers takings directly from a victim’s person — like a phone or purse grabbed and pulled away — where the State does not have to prove significant force, resistance, or injury, only that the victim became aware of the taking as it happened. Because it requires less force than ordinary robbery, it is graded lower: a third-degree felony unarmed, versus robbery’s second-degree floor.

What’s the difference between robbery and carjacking in Florida?

Carjacking (§ 812.133) is robbery of a motor vehicle specifically, and it carries no unarmed second-degree tier the way ordinary robbery does — even an unarmed carjacking is charged as a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years. The same force-or-fear element applies; what differs is the property and the penalty floor.

What if force was only used to get away, not to take the property?

Florida’s robbery statute defines the relevant timeframe broadly — force used during flight immediately after a taking can still support a robbery charge under the statute’s “continuous series of acts” language. Whether force used later, in a separate and disconnected encounter, still qualifies is a fact-specific and often closely contested question, and it is exactly the kind of issue that needs to be evaluated by an attorney familiar with how these timing arguments play out in practice.

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Legal outcomes depend on the specific facts, applicable law, and current procedures. Reading this article or contacting MK Law does not by itself create an attorney-client relationship.