What To Know About Assault With A Dangerous Weapon

Whenever an individual utilizes a weapon when committing an assault or an assault and battery, we are talking about a crime. As an example, when you fire your gun at an individual and you miss, we are talking about assault. When you actually shoot someone, we are discussing assault and battery. In most possible cases, assault and battery will be severely punished, much more than with assault alone.

Being accused of assault with a dangerous weapon is something to be very weary of. It is very important that you are careful and you hire very experienced criminal defense attorneys like https://thedefenders.net/. This is due to the very complex nature of the charge, which involves things like what is presented below.

Severe Punishments

The charge is always punished in a much more severe way when the victim:

• Is older than 60 years old.
• Is pregnant or the defendant is aware of the pregnancy.
• Sustained some serious bodily injury.
• Obtained some sort of restraining order.
• Is underage.

When faced with serious bodily injury, we are talking about a high risk of death. Also, there are higher risks of permanent disfigurement, impairments, or serious losses. For instance, a gunshot wound will always be seen as being serious bodily injury.

Dangerous Weapons

It is very important to understand what the dangerous weapon is. Legally speaking, this is any instrument that has a high possibility of producing great bodily harm or death. Knives and guns are the most common of all dangerous weapons. But, others can also be considered as dangerous, like a cigar that someone uses when burning someone. In some exact situations, even vehicles or dogs can be seen as being dangerous weapons but only when they are utilized to attack someone else.

Intent

Significant sentences appear when assault with a dangerous weapon is accompanies by specific felonies. The defendant does not need to necessarily commit that felony. Intent is more than enough. However, this is quite difficult to do in some cases. But, if the felony does happen, like kidnapping or rape, intent is self-explained. In such situations, we are talking about long prison sentences.

If the assault with the dangerous weapon happens with an intend to kill or rob, even more severe punishments are issued.

Final Thoughts

Assault with a deadly weapon charges should be seen as very serious. It does not matter if the actions you took led to the death of someone or not. We are looking at serious consequences and almost a guaranteed prison sentence in the event that the prosecutor manages to prove you did it. As a result, you need to hire a highly experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as you can.

Just make sure you only consider hiring those criminal defense lawyers who you can actually trust and that have as much experience as possible. It will take some time to find those that are the very best but you should not sacrifice your future by hiring someone else, or a public defendant. At the end of the process, who you hire will influence case results much more than you think.