We have been charged for Petit Larceny. What is the best way to approach this?

Me and my brother have both been charged for Petit larceny. The situation is we both walked into giant at the same time, went to the pharmacy section. My brother took several cough products off the shelf and walked down the aisle to another aisle while I stayed there for several minutes not touching anything but just browsing. He walked out and went to the car. I left shortly after. He gave me 2 of the products in the car and kept the rest of them for himself. Shortly after two cops came to our house and my dad let them in. They started questioning us and shortly after my brother admitted to stealing the products and me accepting them in the parking lot. Two witness's said they saw us steal the products and also its on video tape. We gave them the products, paid for them, and also wrote apology letters after. We were both charged with petit larceny even though I wasn't involved in the actual crime really what so ever.

What is the best way to approach this? My brother is willing to say he acted alone in this so that I don't get into any trouble. He has 2 previous arrests with one conviction for theft. I have a previous conviction for misdemeanor trespassing but was arrested for grand theft larceny. The main problem was our dad was there and let the cops basically do anything they wanted, letting them search the house and what not. Any advice would highly be appreciated.

Make sure you get legal counsel (or at least the public defender) to try to keep this off your record eventually--jail time is probably not likely if your record is very clear now. But having that arrest and/or a conviction on your record will make job-hunting etc. more difficult. Often this could be negotiated down to some kind of court supervision etc. If it eventually appears it cannot be negotiated down, or you need to discuss this in more detail with senior counsel to review options etc., please let us know...

the **** is stupid people should stop stealing it mess up youre records