ARS Solicitation: Charges, Penalties, and Defenses

Arizona solicitation charges are filed under ARS 13-1002, which makes it a standalone crime to ask, encourage, or pressure someone else to commit an offense, even if that offense never happens. The charge is graded two felony levels below the crime you allegedly tried to set in motion, so soliciting a Class 1 felony becomes a Class 3 felony, and soliciting a Class 5 felony or lower drops to a misdemeanor. Penalties run from 30 days in jail at the low end to 8.75 years in prison at the top.

What Solicitation Means Under Arizona Law

You commit solicitation when you direct a specific request or instruction at another person to engage in conduct that would be a crime or make them an accomplice, and you genuinely intend for that crime to happen.¹ Two elements have to line up: criminal intent, and a communication concrete enough to identify the crime.

Vague talk generally will not support a charge. Saying “someone should rob that place” is loose talk. Saying “go rob the store on Fifth Street tonight and I’ll split it with you” is the kind of specific instruction prosecutors build cases on.

One point catches people off guard: the crime is complete the moment the request leaves your mouth. The person you approached does not have to agree, act, or even answer. The Arizona Supreme Court has held that solicitation is finished when the solicitor communicates the request with criminal intent.² A flat refusal from the other person does not undo the offense.

How Arizona Grades the Charge

Arizona uses a step-down system. Whatever crime you allegedly solicited, your charge sits two classifications below it, and the ladder crosses from felony into misdemeanor territory once the target crime is a Class 5 felony or lower.¹

Soliciting a Class 1 felony: Class 3 felony
Soliciting a Class 2 felony: Class 4 felony
Soliciting a Class 3 felony: Class 5 felony
Soliciting a Class 4 felony: Class 6 felony
Soliciting a Class 5 felony: Class 1 misdemeanor
Soliciting a Class 6 felony: Class 2 misdemeanor
Soliciting a misdemeanor: Class 3 misdemeanor

The biggest single step in consequences sits between soliciting a Class 4 felony (still a Class 6 felony charge) and soliciting a Class 5 felony (which lands as a Class 1 misdemeanor). That one classification can be the difference between prison and county jail.

Prison and Jail Penalties

Felony solicitation is sentenced under Arizona’s guidelines for first-time offenders when there are no aggravating or mitigating factors, with judges free to move up or down within a set range.³

Class 3 felony (soliciting a Class 1 felony): presumptive 3.5 years, ranging from 2 years mitigated to 8.75 years aggravated
Class 4 felony (soliciting a Class 2 felony): presumptive 2.5 years, ranging from 1 year to 3.75 years
Class 5 felony (soliciting a Class 3 felony): presumptive 1.5 years, ranging from 6 months to 2.5 years
Class 6 felony (soliciting a Class 4 felony): presumptive 1 year, ranging from 4 months to 2 years

Felony fines can reach $150,000 per charge.⁴ A felony conviction also creates a permanent record that affects employment, housing, professional licensing, and firearm rights long after any sentence is served.

Once the charge drops to misdemeanor level, jail time is served in county facilities and the caps are much shorter.⁵

Class 1 misdemeanor (soliciting a Class 5 felony): up to 6 months in jail and a fine up to $2,500
Class 2 misdemeanor (soliciting a Class 6 felony): up to 4 months in jail and a fine up to $750
Class 3 misdemeanor (soliciting a misdemeanor): up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $500

Those misdemeanor fine caps come from ARS 13-802.⁶ Courts can order probation alongside or in place of jail.

How Long Prosecutors Have to File

Felony solicitation (Class 3 through Class 6) carries a seven-year statute of limitations, running from the date the state discovers the offense or should have discovered it with reasonable diligence. Misdemeanor solicitation carries a one-year limit.⁷

Because the clock is tied to discovery rather than the date of the conduct, old solicitations can surface years later when a witness comes forward or when evidence turns up in an unrelated investigation.

Defenses That Can Apply

Lack of Specific Intent

Solicitation requires that you actually meant for the crime to happen. Sarcasm, hypotheticals, and jokes that someone took seriously do not satisfy the intent element. Prosecutors will look at context: your relationship with the other person, any prior planning, follow-up messages, and whether you took preparatory steps. When the evidence genuinely shows there was no real criminal plan behind the words, challenging intent can lead to dismissal or acquittal.

Vague or Ambiguous Communication

The statute requires a request that identifies “specific conduct” amounting to a crime.¹ If the alleged communication is too general to pin down what crime was being encouraged, the charge may not hold. Recorded calls and text messages cut both ways: they help the state prove exactly what was said, and they can also show that the language was less incriminating than the state claims.

Entrapment

Sting operations are common in solicitation cases because Arizona’s statute exempts peace officers acting in the line of duty from solicitation liability.¹ That makes entrapment the defense that comes up most often, and it is an affirmative defense you must prove by clear and convincing evidence. You have to establish three things:⁸

The idea for the crime originated with law enforcement or their agents, not with you
Officers urged and induced you to commit the offense
You were not already predisposed to commit this type of crime

Predisposition is where most entrapment claims fall apart. Any prior history or independent willingness to engage in the type of crime charged tends to sink the defense. Arizona law also makes clear that officers who simply give someone an opportunity to commit a crime, or who use a ruse or hide their identity, are not entrapping anyone.⁸ There is also a procedural catch. To raise entrapment you must first admit the core elements of the offense. You cannot deny committing solicitation and simultaneously claim you were entrapped into it.

Renunciation

Arizona recognizes renunciation under ARS 13-1005, but the bar is high. You must show a voluntary and complete abandonment of the criminal plan, notify the person you solicited that it is off, and give law enforcement a timely warning or otherwise make a reasonable effort to prevent the crime.⁹

Backing out because you thought you were about to get caught does not count. Neither does postponing the plan or switching to a different target. Telling the other person to forget it, without more, will usually fall short.⁹

When Solicitation Stacks With Other Charges

Solicitation is an inchoate crime, meaning it punishes conduct that falls short of the completed offense. When the solicited crime actually goes forward, solicitation generally merges into the completed offense or an attempt charge. Prosecutors usually cannot stack a solicitation conviction on top of a conviction for the finished crime when both arise from the same conduct.

Conspiracy is the exception. If you and the person you solicited reached an actual agreement and took steps toward the crime, the state can charge conspiracy separately. Conspiracy requires a mutual agreement between at least two people, and Arizona treats it as a distinct offense that does not merge with either the solicitation or the completed crime. A single course of conduct can therefore produce charges for both conspiracy and the underlying offense, which is worth raising with a defense attorney as early in the case as possible.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-1002 – Solicitation; Classifications
2
Justia Law. State v. Johnson (1982)
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-702 – First Time Felony Offenders; Sentencing; Definition
4
Arizona Courts. Criminal Code Sentencing Provisions 2025-2026
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-707 – Misdemeanors; Sentencing
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-802 – Fines for Misdemeanors
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-107 – Time Limitations
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-206 – Entrapment
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-1005 – Defense for Renunciation