Aggravated Assault

Georgia criminal law defines aggravated assault as:

1. Assaults with intent to murder, rape, or rob;

• Intent to murder requires intent to kill. This is generally shown by the type of weapon used, how it was used, the injuries it caused, the brutality of the injury and the duration of the assault.
• The act of intentionally firing a gun at another, absent justification, is enough by itself to support a conviction of aggravated assault.
• The intent to rape requires a substantial step toward committing a battery or a non-consented to touching, not a rape, because otherwise it would be an attempted rape.
• The intent to rob requires reasonable apprehension of receiving bodily injury and intent to rob.

2. Assaults with the use of a deadly weapon or any object, device or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury;

• Hands & Feet can be considered deadly weapons.
• A weapon may become a deadly weapon depending on how it is used, the wounds it inflicted, the degree of force that was used, and the likelihood of serious injury.
• A weapon is deadly under this code section if the victim reasonably believed it was deadly even though it wasn’t. An example would be brandishing a fake gun.
• There must be some evidence that the victim knew a deadly weapon was involved.

3. Assaults with any object, device or instrument which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in strangulation;

• This is a common charge in domestic violence situations.
• Marks on the victim’s neck and testimony by the victim are both common forms of evidence we see when defending clients against charges of strangulation.

4. Assaults that include drive-bys without legal justification.

• A drive by occurs when an individual fires a weapon from within a motor vehicle then flees the scene.
• There are enhanced penalties for this type of assault when the drive-by occurs within a school safety zone. The mandatory minimum jumps up to 5 years instead of 1 year.

We’ve gone over the four types of aggravated assault, but before you can be convicted of aggravated assault, the prosecutor must prove that you are also guilty of simple assault. This begs the question, well what is the difference?

Under Georgia law simple assault can occur in two ways:

1. An attempt to commit a violent injury to the person of another (attempted battery)

This is frequently referred to as the attempted battery type. This type of assault requires some sort of intent to injure the victim. A threat alone is not sufficient to constitute an attempted battery. There must some kind of non-consented to touching. This type of assault can also occur without the victim ever knowing that it occurred.

Ex./ A guy bumps into your friend at the bar and does not say excuse me. As he is walking away, your friend throws a haymaker, but misses. The guy never knew it happened, but your friend could be charged and convicted of simple assault (attempted battery).

2. Commission of an act which places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury.

This is frequently referred to as the apprehension type of simple assault. This type of assault requires some sort of intent to cause the victim to be reasonably apprehensive. It does not require any type of physical contact or physical harm. This type of simple assault can occur even if the victim is not afraid.

Ex./ A guy bumps into your friend at the bar and does not say excuse me. Your friend confronts the guy face to face. Your friend tries to make the guy flinch by acting like he’s going to hit him. Regardless of whether the guy flinches or not, your friend could be charged and convicted of simple assault (reasonable apprehension).