Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer

Many felony cases filed in Collin County are heard at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building in McKinney, the county seat. If you or someone you love has been charged with a crime anywhere in Collin County, the charge and court assignment will shape the next steps. Kent Starr has practiced criminal defense in Collin County since 1997. His office is in McKinney, and he is a solo practitioner who takes every consultation himself.

Criminal lawyers for Collin County

People searching for criminal lawyers for Collin County usually want one thing: someone who is in these courts often enough to know how they actually run. Collin County defense lawyers are not interchangeable. The prosecutors, the judges, and the dockets here each have their own rhythm, and Kent has worked in them for years. He is the lawyer who appears at every setting, not an intake desk that hands you off.

A criminal defense attorney for every Collin County charge

As a Collin County criminal defense attorney, Kent defends the full range of Texas criminal charges in the county's courts. The categories below are where most Collin County cases fall.

Drug charges in Collin County

Possession cases here often start as traffic stops on US-75 or the Sam Rayburn Tollway that turn into vehicle searches, and whether that search holds up is often where the defense starts. Texas grades drug charges by penalty group and amount: possession of less than a gram of a substance like cocaine or methamphetamine is already a state jail felony, and delivery charges climb from there. THC edibles and vape cartridges are the trap that catches the most people, because the law weighs the whole concentrate rather than plant material, so a handful of gummies can be charged as a felony. Kent handles drug charge defense at every level, from first-time possession to possession with intent to distribute.

Assault and family-violence cases

Assault runs from a Class C citation for offensive contact up to felony aggravated assault, and the family-violence finding that rides along carries its own consequences. Self-defense comes up more than in any other kind of case, including the castle-doctrine presumptions in Penal Code §§9.31 and 9.32. The assault and domestic violence defense page carries the detail on the ranges, protective orders, and how these cases are handled in the Collin County courts.

Theft, burglary, and robbery

Texas grades theft by value, but the exceptions are where people get surprised: stealing a firearm is a state jail felony no matter what the gun is worth, and receiving property you knew was stolen is prosecuted as ordinary theft. Burglary turns on the place. A habitation is at least a second-degree felony, a building is a state jail felony, and breaking into a vehicle is a Class A misdemeanor with stiffer treatment for repeat charges. When force or a threat enters the picture the charge becomes robbery, and a weapon makes it aggravated. The firm's theft and property crimes page covers the full ladder.

Felony charges and first-time defendants

Felonies in Texas run from state jail felonies up to first-degree charges, but a first arrest is not the same thing as a felony record. Depending on the charge and the facts, courts have real tools: deferred adjudication in eligible cases, and for state jail felonies the reductions in Penal Code §12.44, which can bring punishment down to misdemeanor level or, with the prosecutor's agreement, allow the case to be prosecuted as a Class A misdemeanor outright. The window between arrest and indictment is when a lawyer has the most room to work, which is why the grand jury stage matters more than most people realize.

DWI and intoxication offenses

Collin County's highway corridors produce a steady stream of intoxication arrests, and the deadline to contest a proposed license suspension depends on the ALR notice, not simply the arrest date. Have a lawyer check that notice promptly rather than waiting for your first court date. A first DWI is usually a misdemeanor, but the charge climbs fast with prior convictions, a child passenger, or a crash that injures someone. Kent's DWI defense page covers the process, and Frisco's event-night arrests have their own pattern, covered on the Frisco DWI page.

Weapons and firearm charges

Unlawful carry, felon-in-possession, and prohibited-places cases file with the Collin County District Attorney, and federal exposure often hides inside a state arrest. Guns forgotten in carry-on bags at DFW and Love Field are their own recurring problem for North Texas travelers, though those cases are filed where the airport sits, in Tarrant or Dallas County. The firm's weapons charges page covers where the state cases go and when the federal line gets crossed.

Sex crime allegations

The most sensitive docket in the building, where registration consequences make the defense decisions heavier than the sentence alone. These cases get their own approach, covered on the firm's sex crimes defense page, including what to do in the first 48 hours after an accusation surfaces.

Murder and homicide cases

The county's most serious felony allegations are tried in the district courts in McKinney with everything on the line. Kent handles murder and homicide defense personally, as he does every case.

Federal cases

Some Collin County arrests move into the Eastern District of Texas, and the rules change completely when they do. Kent handles federal criminal defense on both sides of that line, including white collar matters.

Juvenile cases

Collin County juvenile matters follow their own code and their own court, and the stakes are a child's record. The firm's juvenile defense page covers how that track differs from adult court.

Kent also handles expunctions and record sealing for eligible Collin County arrests, probation and parole violations, reckless driving, evading, and warrant cases, and animal cruelty charges.

Offense guides for Collin County

Each of these pages goes into the detail on one offense in one county: how Texas grades it, what the range is, and what the defense examines.

• Burglary, robbery and theft in Collin County — the degrees, the 3G bar, and how theft is graded by value.
• Felony charges in Collin County — the punishment ladder, indictment, bond, and 3G probation eligibility.
• Child pornography charges — state and federal exposure.
• Sexual assault of a child.
• Accused of sexual assault.
• Indecency with a child.
• Online solicitation of a minor.
• Accused of child molestation.
• CPS and police investigations.

Kent Starr in Collin County

Kent Starr has practiced criminal defense in Collin County since 1997. He works from his McKinney office in the county seat, and he keeps the practice deliberately small. There is no team of associates, no hand-off after the first meeting. Clients work with Kent from the first consultation through the last setting. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English, clerked at the Supreme Court of Arkansas and the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. The consultation is free, and payment plans are available.

He also represents Collin County residents whose cases land in neighboring counties, and clients across McKinney, Plano, Frisco, Allen, Prosper, Wylie, and Princeton have city pages with detail on how local arrests move through the system.

The Collin County courts

Criminal cases in Collin County run through the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building at 2100 Bloomdale Road in McKinney. Felonies are heard in the district courts that sit there, a roster that includes the 199th, 219th, 296th, 366th, 380th, 401st, 416th, and 417th District Courts among others, with the 417th handling juvenile programs. Most Class A and Class B misdemeanors go to the County Courts at Law in the same complex. The Collin County District Attorney's Office prosecutes both.

Each court runs its docket differently. Some judges expect announcements early and in person. Some move pretrial motions quickly and others let them sit. Plea recommendations that one court accepts without comment draw questions in another. None of this is written down anywhere a defendant can find it. It is learned by showing up in these courtrooms for years, and it shapes practical decisions in every case: when to set a motion, when to negotiate, when to ask for a trial date.

From arrest to first setting in Collin County

After an arrest anywhere in the county, most people are booked into the Collin County Detention Facility at 4300 Community Ave. in McKinney. Some cities hold arrestees briefly in a municipal facility first, but county charges move to the county jail. A magistrate then reviews the arrest, gives the statutory warnings, and sets bond. Texas law requires this to happen promptly, and for most arrests it comes within the first day or two.

Bond is often the first thing worth fighting over. The amount, and the conditions attached to it, decide whether you sit in jail while your case is pending or go back to your job and your family. An attorney can push for a prompt magistration, argue the amount down, and ask the court to modify conditions such as no-contact orders or travel limits that collide with real life. If a loved one was just arrested, our guide to getting out of the Collin County jail walks through how bond works and the fastest paths to release. After release, the case moves to announcement and pretrial settings at the courthouse, where the real work of examining the State's evidence begins.

The first days matter more than people expect. What you say in those early hours can end up read back at trial. And the things that might help your case, like camera footage, phone records, or what witnesses still remember clearly, are easiest to lock down right after the arrest. Getting a lawyer in early is not just paperwork. It changes what there is to work with.

What the early settings actually decide

The first court dates in a Collin County case are called announcement settings, and they look uneventful from the gallery. Nothing about them is uneventful. This is when the defense receives the State’s file: the offense report, the body and dash camera footage, the lab submissions, the witness statements. Texas discovery law requires the State to turn that material over, and reading it line by line is where defenses are found. A suppression issue buried in the traffic stop. A witness whose written statement does not match what the officer summarized. A lab result that has not actually come back yet, even though the charge assumes it.

Those settings also decide pace. A case can be reset while the defense investigates, pushed toward a negotiated resolution, or set for contested hearings and trial. Each of those paths costs and protects different things, and the right one depends on the evidence, the client’s record, and what the prosecutor on that particular court’s docket is willing to do. There is no autopilot version of this. The decisions get made setting by setting, and the client should understand each one before it happens.

Collin County also runs grand juries for felony cases, and the window between arrest and indictment matters more than most people realize. Before an indictment is returned, a defense lawyer can sometimes put mitigating evidence or legal problems with the case in front of the District Attorney’s Office. After indictment, the conversation changes. If you hire counsel in that window instead of after it closes, options exist that simply do not exist later.

One more thing about this county: it is not Dallas County. The dockets are smaller, prosecutors usually have more time per case, and a weak case is less likely to slip through unexamined than it might in a bigger system. That means a sloppy defense gets caught here too. So the work is to come in more prepared than the other side, which is the one thing a defendant can actually control.

If you are facing a criminal charge in Collin County, call (214) 982-1408 for a free, confidential consultation with Kent.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is evaluated on its own facts.

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