Aggravated Assault

Aggravated assault an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. Aggravated assaults are usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. For this reason, aggravated assaults are often referred to as assault with a deadly weapon under California Penal Code 245(a)(1).
 
To prove that you are guilty of aggravated assault, the prosecutor must first prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you willfully assaulted another person with or without a deadly weapon. Indeed, regarding assault with a deadly weapon, charges need not include a conventional weapon such as a gun or a knife but may include any object that is used as a weapon, such as a shoe, a bottle, or a brick.
 
Aggravated assault is what is a 'wobbler' under California law. This means that it may be charged and punished as either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the facts of the case, including the type of weapon or instrument used in the assault, whether or not the victim sustained an injury, how severe the injury was, and whether or not the victim is a law enforcement personnel or other protected person.
 
The maximum jail sentence for assault with a deadly weapon as a misdemeanor is one year in county jail. Felony aggravated assault is a serious charge and carries the potential penalty of up to four years in state prison or county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

​Examples of Defenses of Aggravated Assault

The most fundamental defense for charges of aggravated assault is self-defense. If you honestly and reasonably believe that you are going to suffer great bodily injury, or if you honestly and reasonably believe that another person is about to suffer great bodily injury, you are justified in using as much force as is reasonably necessary to repel the force as self-defense or defense of others.  In such instances, you are not guilty of aggravated assault.
 
If when you acted, you had no present ability to carry out the assault, or to apply force likely to produce great bodily injury with a deadly weapon or otherwise, you cannot be convicted of aggravated assault.  For example, you might have threatened to shoot someone but did not have a gun or the gun was not loaded and you knew it was not loaded.
 
If you accidentally assaulted someone without intending to do so, your conduct does not qualify as an assault with a deadly weapon.
 
Even if the evidence against you is overwhelming or you have confessed, we invite you to contact us soon as possible. If the least we can do is have the charges reduced, this could potentially save you from having a strike or a felony on your record.