Disclaimer time: my phone was non-functional at the time, although I probably still would have destroyed the thing. I used the thing as best I could until my contract was up for renewal (which was a painstaking several months to have a flaky phone). It would turn on, usually, but would soon thereafter shut itself off. Nobody could possibly make a call on it-- I'd call that nonfunctional.
All the better, though. I was very satisfied to introduce it to my firearm collection.
On topic, what sort of sentence is he getting? Is it something as simple as a fine or is he looking at jail time?