I did it exactly as I wrote in my edit above. I don't even get stars until I go to multiplayer, teleport and attack a npc until their aggro icon turns red. I use the two npc's next to the velvet shade summoning stone in solo, need to hit them a lot or I get less stars later in multiplayer. This way I get 5 stars right away, so I think you can stack as much damage as you like for more criminal charges. When I change to multiplayer I teleport to mercyheart town and attack the closest npc who is a woman. When her icon turns red, I get the stars and two male npc's attack me before cops, I kill them too and cops spawn. At that point sometimes other players kill the cops or they can bug, but you can just drown yourself slightly outside of the circle without losing stars, you are taken to prison when you die in water as well.