Violent Crime Defense

A violent-crime charge is one of the most serious cases California law can bring against you. Beyond the base offense, these cases carry two forces most people have never heard of until they are facing them: sentence enhancements that stack additional years onto a sentence, and the Three Strikes law, which can turn a single felony into a life-altering prior. What looks at first like one charge can quickly become a base term, a great-bodily-injury enhancement, a firearm enhancement, and a strike — all at once. How a case is charged and framed often matters as much as what actually happened.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield defends people throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley against assault, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, carjacking, and criminal-threats charges. Founding attorney Knarik Boyadzhyan is a former Deputy Public Defender who began her career as a paralegal in the United States Department of Justice's Violent and Organized Crime Section. She has handled serious felony matters at every stage and understands how the prosecution builds a violent-crime case — and where those cases break down.

Many violent-crime charges are 'wobblers' that can be filed as a misdemeanor or a felony, and prosecutors frequently charge them at the higher end and add every enhancement the facts might support. That is a strategy, not a verdict. The initial charge is a starting point for negotiation and litigation, not a foregone conclusion — reductions, dismissals, and acquittals happen every day in these cases.

Our defense begins with the theory of the case and the evidence behind it: Was this self-defense or the defense of someone else? Is the identification reliable, or is this a mistaken-identity or false-accusation case? Do the injuries and the forensics actually match the story the prosecution is telling? From the first call, we work to protect your rights, attack the state's proof, and pursue a dismissal, a reduction, or an acquittal at trial.

“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 are 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 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 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) and criminal threats under Penal Code § 422 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) and carjacking (Penal Code § 215) 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, and they are barely explained on most defense websites. 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 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 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 is 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 with severe consequences. 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, commonly called an expungement, which can help with employment even though it does not 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. Knowing the local court — how these cases are actually charged, negotiated, and resolved in Van Nuys, and how the local prosecutors approach enhancements and strikes — is an advantage a downtown-only or out-of-area firm cannot offer. We appear in Van Nuys and the surrounding Los Angeles County courts regularly, and we bring that local knowledge to every violent-crime case we take.