Assault Defense Attorney in Shasta County

What Is the Difference Between Assault and Battery in California?

Assault is the attempt and battery is the contact. Penal Code section 240 defines assault as an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on another person. Section 242 defines battery as any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another. Neither one requires an injury.

Simple assault under section 241(a) is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both. Simple battery under section 243(a) carries a fine of up to $2,000, up to six months in county jail, or both. Higher ranges apply to protected categories such as peace officers, and domestic cases are covered on the domestic violence page.

Battery causing serious bodily injury under section 243(d) can be punished by up to a year in county jail or by two, three, or four years under section 1170(h). The statute defines serious bodily injury as a serious impairment of physical condition, including loss of consciousness, concussion, bone fracture, and a wound requiring extensive suturing.

Assault With a Deadly Weapon and Force Likely to Produce Great Bodily Injury

Penal Code section 245 covers the more serious assaults. Subdivision (a)(1) applies to an assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, and subdivision (a)(4) applies to an assault by any means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, with no weapon at all. Both can be punished as a felony or as a misdemeanor.

The jury instruction, CALCRIM No. 875, shows how much turns on facts rather than labels. No one needs to have been injured. A deadly weapon other than a firearm is an object that is inherently deadly, or one used in a way capable of causing and likely to cause death or great bodily injury, judged by all the circumstances. Whether an everyday object fits that definition is a fact question, and often the defense’s focus.

Is Self-Defense a Defense to Assault in California?

Yes. Under CALCRIM No. 3470, a person acted in lawful self-defense or defense of another if they reasonably believed someone was in imminent danger of bodily injury, reasonably believed immediate force was necessary, and used no more force than was reasonably necessary. The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in lawful self-defense.

Several parts of that instruction matter in practice. The danger does not have to have actually existed if the belief was reasonable, judged by the circumstances as they were known to and appeared to the defendant. A person is not required to retreat and may stand their ground. Belief in future harm is not enough, however great or likely the harm seemed. And a person who used more force than was reasonable did not act in lawful self-defense.

Where the evidence supports it, the jury may also consider that the alleged victim threatened or harmed the defendant or others in the past, and someone previously threatened or harmed by a person is justified in acting more quickly against that person. That history has to be found and documented. It is investigation work, not argument.

Defense of others follows the same rules. The limits come from CALCRIM No. 3471, on mutual combat and the initial aggressor.

Which Violent Felonies Count as Strikes?

A strike is a prior conviction for a serious felony listed in Penal Code section 1192.7(c) or a violent felony listed in section 667.5(c). Under section 667(e)(1), one prior strike doubles the term for a new felony. Under section 667(e)(2), two or more can produce an indeterminate life term with a minimum of at least 25 years.

The serious felony list in section 1192.7(c) includes assault with a deadly weapon or firearm in violation of section 245, any felony in which the defendant personally inflicts great bodily injury or personally uses a firearm, any felony in which the defendant personally used a dangerous or deadly weapon, criminal threats under section 422, attempted murder, and murder or voluntary manslaughter. The violent felony list in section 667.5(c) includes murder, voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder, and any felony in which great bodily injury is charged and proved under section 12022.7.

That is why the exact subdivision charged, and every enhancement attached to it, matters from the first day. If a gang allegation under Penal Code section 186.22 is added, the analysis changes again: a felony that would also be a felony violation of section 186.22 is itself on the serious felony list, at section 1192.7(c)(28).

Can a Felony Assault Be Reduced to a Misdemeanor?

Yes, when the charge is a wobbler. Sections 245(a)(1), 245(a)(4), 243(d), and 422 can each be punished either by a felony term or by county jail, and Penal Code section 17(b) lists the ways such an offense becomes a misdemeanor for all purposes, from a misdemeanor filing to a court declaration at sentencing.

Under section 17(b), the offense becomes a misdemeanor when the prosecutor files it as one, unless the defendant objects; when the court determines before trial that it is a misdemeanor; when the judgment imposes a punishment other than a felony term; or when the court grants probation and declares it a misdemeanor, then or later on application.

Timing matters. Under section 667(d)(1), whether a prior conviction counts as a strike is decided as of the date of that conviction, unless the sentence automatically converted the felony to a misdemeanor at the initial sentencing.

Two examples from our case results. A client was charged with possession of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal threats. The office located old restraining order records from another county proving the client was not legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, and the assault with a deadly weapon charge was reduced to misdemeanor disturbing the peace. In another case, a client accused of assault and battery with a bat against an elderly man submitted to a polygraph examination that supported the client’s innocence, and after negotiations with the District Attorney the charges were dropped.

Murder and Manslaughter Charges

Murder under Penal Code section 187 is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Manslaughter under section 192 is an unlawful killing without malice, either voluntary, upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion, or involuntary. The line between them is the line between a life term and a fixed one.

Under section 190(a), first degree murder is punishable by death, life without the possibility of parole, or 25 years to life, and second degree murder by 15 years to life, subject to exceptions in the statute. Under section 193, voluntary manslaughter carries 3, 6, or 11 years in state prison, and involuntary manslaughter two, three, or four years under section 1170(h).

Homicide cases can turn on causation. In How I Beat a Murder Charge by Questioning Assumptions, Jacob Levin describes a client charged with murder after a man died more than six weeks after a fight. The prosecution’s theory ran from a broken hip, to surgery, to an infection it called MRSA, to sepsis, to death. The postmortem cultures in the underlying records did not identify MRSA. An independent forensic pathologist retained by the defense concluded the evidence pointed toward sudden cardiac death from severe cardiovascular disease. The murder charge was dismissed, and the client resolved the case by pleading to assault.

In an attempted murder trial, Jacob Levin relied on Penal Code section 1111, which bars a conviction on an accomplice’s testimony unless other evidence corroborates it by connecting the defendant to the offense, and argued that the prosecution’s key witness was an accomplice. The jury split 6-6, resulting in a hung jury.

Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances. A result in one case does not predict the outcome of another.

Working With an Assault Defense Attorney in Shasta County

The work starts before the first court date. Video from businesses and phones, 911 audio, medical records, and the names of people who saw the incident can disappear quickly. A defense built only on the prosecution’s file is built on the prosecution’s assumptions.

The questions are who started it, what each person reasonably believed, how much force was used, and whether the injuries match the account. Answering them takes independent investigation, subpoenas, and cross-examination at the preliminary hearing, where testimony is locked in under oath. The method is the one described in how a prison weapon case ended before closing argument: ask what the evidence has actually ruled out.

Jacob Levin’s background includes internships in the San Francisco and Shasta County District Attorney’s offices, where he worked on homicide, assault and battery, and other cases, including the Berry White double homicide trial in San Francisco, followed by two years working for attorney Eric Berg in Redding. See about Jacob Levin and the most dangerous words in criminal defense.

In his words: “Levin Law is built on integrity, teamwork, and a true desire to help our clients. We fight for our clients. We outwork the other side, we out-research the other side, we outperform the other side; that is how we win.”