Violent Crime Defense

“Violent crime” is not a single statute — it is a family of offenses that involve force, the threat of force, or injury to another person. They range from a simple assault, which can be a misdemeanor, up through robbery and carjacking, which are always felonies and always strikes. Because the same incident can support several different charges, understanding exactly what you're accused of is the first step in defending it.

The most common point of confusion is the difference between assault and battery, which California treats as two distinct crimes. Assault under Penal Code § 240 (opens in new window) is an attempt to commit a violent injury coupled with the present ability to do so — no contact is required. Battery under Penal Code § 242 (opens in new window) is the actual, willful use of force on another person — the completed touching. In everyday speech people say “assault” to mean a physical attack, but in court the two carry different elements and different consequences, and prosecutors sometimes charge both from a single event.

Many violent-crime charges are 'wobblers' — offenses that can be filed as either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the facts and the defendant's history. Assault with a deadly weapon under Penal Code § 245(a)(1) (opens in new window) and criminal threats under Penal Code § 422 (opens in new window) are common examples. A misdemeanor generally carries up to a year in county jail, while the felony version can carry a multi-year state-prison term. Getting a wobbler charged or reduced to a misdemeanor is frequently a central defense objective, because it changes the ceiling on the whole case.

Some offenses are not wobblers at all. Robbery (Penal Code § 211 (opens in new window)) and carjacking (Penal Code § 215 (opens in new window)) are straight felonies that carry years in state prison and count as strikes even for a first offense. Felony ranges vary by charge, but California sentencing typically works from a low, middle, and high term, and the court selects among them based on aggravating and mitigating factors. On top of the base term, enhancements and prior strikes can add years — which is why two people charged with what sounds like the same crime can face dramatically different exposure.

These figures are general information, not a prediction. Your actual exposure depends on the specific charge, the enhancements alleged, your record, and the facts of the case. The value of an experienced defense is in attacking each of those layers — the base charge, the enhancements, and any alleged prior strike — rather than treating the sentence as fixed.

Enhancements are where violent-crime sentences quietly balloon. An enhancement is extra time added on top of the sentence for the underlying crime, triggered by a specific fact — an injury, a weapon, or a prior. Because enhancements can run consecutively, a single incident can produce a base term plus several added years stacked one after another.

The great-bodily-injury enhancement under Penal Code § 12022.7 (opens in new window) generally adds a consecutive term (often three years, and more in certain categories of case) when a defendant personally inflicts a significant or substantial physical injury on someone during a felony. It attaches to many violent charges and is one of the most common ways a sentence grows. The firearm enhancement under Penal Code § 12022.53 — widely known as “10-20-life” — adds roughly ten years for using a firearm, twenty years for discharging it, and twenty-five-years-to-life where the discharge causes great bodily injury or death, in the felonies the statute lists. A separate one-year enhancement under Penal Code § 12022(b) applies to the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon that is not a firearm.

The Three Strikes law (Penal Code §§ 667 (opens in new window) and 1170.12) operates on a different axis: prior convictions. A prior serious or violent felony counts as a “strike.” A new felony with one prior strike generally doubles the sentence, and a new felony with two prior strikes can bring a term of twenty-five-years-to-life. Many violent crimes — robbery, carjacking, ADW, and others — are themselves strike offenses, so a conviction today is not just today's sentence; it is a strike that magnifies every future case. Fighting to strike an enhancement, to dismiss a prior strike in the interest of justice, or to reduce a charge to a non-strike offense can matter as much as the verdict itself, and it's a core part of how we defend these cases.

A violent-crime case does not end at sentencing. A conviction can affect your employment, your housing, your firearm rights, your professional licenses, and — for non-citizens — your immigration status, since several violent offenses can be treated as crimes involving moral turpitude or aggravated felonies, federal categories decided by the wording of the statute rather than by what happened. Part of a sound defense is understanding these collateral effects from the outset and steering toward a resolution that limits them, not just the sentence.

California also offers paths to relief in the right cases. Many people who complete probation become eligible to petition to have a conviction dismissed under Penal Code § 1203.4 (opens in new window), commonly called an expungement, which can help with employment even though it doesn't erase every consequence. Depending on the charge and your background, diversion or a mental-health or veterans' program may be an option that avoids a conviction altogether. Not every offense or every person qualifies — strike offenses in particular are limited — but these avenues are worth exploring early, because eligibility often depends on how the case is resolved in the first place.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield is based in Encino on Ventura Boulevard and defends violent-crime cases throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles — Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Studio City, Northridge, and the surrounding communities.

If you were arrested in the Valley, your case is very likely to be prosecuted at the Van Nuys Courthouse, which handles felony and misdemeanor criminal matters for the San Fernando Valley. We appear in Van Nuys and the surrounding Los Angeles County courts regularly, which means knowing how these cases are actually charged, negotiated, and resolved there — and how the local prosecutors approach enhancements and strikes.