Assault with a Deadly Weapon

Any type of assault charge is serious, but “assault with a deadly weapon” raises the stakes even further. If the prosecutor in your cases is able to convince the court that you used or even had immediate access to a deadly weapon during the course of an assault, your penalties will be much more severe. Even in the long term, a record that contains a crime with a deadly weapon has a devastating effect on your chances for employment.

What is a Deadly Weapon?

It’s no surprise that if you brandish a gun or switchblade, you could face the “deadly weapon” addition to an assault charge. But the designation is not limited to things designed to function as weapons. Practically any sharp or heavy object is a candidate for a deadly weapon, if the prosecution feels it can prove that you intended to use it to harm another person. When you leave your defense with Weiner Law Group, you can count on our expert help to oppose speculation and make sure you don’t suffer excessive penalties. Even having a weapon on your person—in a gun holster, for example—could escalate your possible penalties, whether or not you took the gun out. We put our expertise to work to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Assault With a Deadly Weapon Defense Techniques

In order to keep you out of jail, we use every legal technique available to us. In the case of assault with a deadly weapon, we have quite a few defenses to choose from:

• Self-defense. An act of self-defense can easily appear to onlookers as an assault. Prosecutors know how to emphasize that appearance, but it is up to your attorney to reconstruct the incident as it actually happened.
• No intent. You shouldn’t face months in jail just because you were goofing off and someone took your actions too seriously. It takes a good criminal defense lawyer, however, to oppose the efforts of a prosecutor to paint you as a violent aggressor. Related to this defense is insisting that the “victim” had actually consented to the assault—in the context of a game or contest, for example.
• Did not use a weapon. In the worst case scenario, your prosecutor could fabricate a deadly weapon charge from flimsy evidence in order to get a more severe penalty. With your help, your defense attorney must put together enough evidence to show that you did not intend to use a weapon to hurt someone else.

If you’ve been charged with assault with a deadly weapon in Las Vegas and need help with your criminal defense case, call 702-202-0500 or fill out our contact form.