Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon or Serious Injury - Florida Statutes 784.045

Are you being charged, in Palm Beach County, Florida, with Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon? We are Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon attorneys located in West Palm Beach. When you are arrested for Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon you want a lawyer that understands and practices in this area of law. Don’t hire a lawyer that dabbles in criminal defense, hire a criminal defense attorney that has extensive experience in Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon cases. Your attorney needs to have knowledge and experience but also needs to know the players. Knowing the players comes from years of being inside the courtroom. Finding the best criminal defense attorney in Palm Beach County, for your case, is difficult. You need to review their educational background, experience in criminal cases, their reputation in the community, and their ability to communicate with you, the client. The quality of the criminal defense attorney you hire to defend your Aggravated Battery With a Deadly Weapon case is extremely important. We ask that you consider our South Florida Criminal Defense Attorneys.

Battery is the intentionally touching or hitting of a person against their will. In Florida, there are multiple types of battery depending on who the victim is, the person committing the battery, and how aggressive the battery is. Aggravated battery is a more serious form of battery because it is battery taken to the “next level.” Two ways for battery to get taken to the next level is with the use of a deadly weapon or where the battery caused serious body injury.

A deadly weapon is anything that could be used or threatened to be used in a way likely to create death or great body injury. This is an area that is open to interpretation as to what can be considered deadly. Everyone knows a baseball bat is deadly but is an unbroken beer bottle over the head? For example, our firm had a case where a former couple was at a bar talking because they were “still friends.” They got into an argument and the girl smashed a beer bottle over the guy’s head and she was charged with aggravated battery. Aggravated battery by itself with no criminal history scores approximate 21 months of Florida State Prison.

For a defendant to be convicted of aggravated battery under Florida Statute 784.045, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that:

1. The defendant committed a battery (intentional touching without consent); and
2. The defendant intentionally and knowingly committed either:
   1. A battery using a deadly weapon; or
   2. A battery which caused great physical injury, permanent disability, or permanent mutilation to the victim.

The state prosecutor is going to be choosing what charges are going to be filed against you. The Boca Raton Aggravated Battery Lawyers at The Law Office of Roger P. Foley, P.A. can analyze the facts of your case and determine the best defenses that are available to you. There are some defenses that are available to an aggravated battery charge. One defense is that the defendant was defending himself from the attack of the “victim.” (Example: The girl hit the man with the beer bottle to defend herself against the man’s attempt to attack her in the bar.)

Remember that for a defendant to commit aggravated battery, the defendant must first necessarily commit the crime of battery. A state attorney may choose to file only the battery charge and not the more serious charge. This does not mean that the defendant is “off the hook.” The prosecutor can change the charge from battery to aggravated battery. Likewise, the state attorney can also change the more serious aggravated battery charge to the less serious charge of simple battery.

Aggravated battery is a serious charge and is a second-degree felony which has a maximum punishment of 15 year in prison and a $10,000 fine. If a person commits this crime with a firearm on them, then the 10-20-Life rule kicks-in with severe minimum mandatory prison sentences.

If you have been arrested and charged with aggravated battery, our Boca Raton Aggravated Battery Lawyers are waiting to help you. We have experience in handling these types of cases.