Criminal defense lawyers in Houston often provide legal representation for clients charged with felony assault. If it is not possible to get the charge dropped or the case dismissed by a judge, one strategy the attorneys are likely to use involves getting the charge reduced to a misdemeanor. The individual will have to plead guilty to the lesser charge and will have the conviction on his or her criminal record, but the consequences will be much less severe.
Some states separate the charges of assault and battery, with assault being the intent to harm someone with physical violence, and battery being the actual inflicting of violence. Texas combines these offenses into one. Assault charges usually are misdemeanors. However, some are categorized as felonies. Examples include assaulting a police officer or an emergency medical technician.
Defense lawyers may convince the prosecuting attorney to reduce charges because of several factors. For example, if the client threatened a police officer but did not actually attack the officer, the prosecution may be willing to reduce the charge. If the officer was not in uniform, the client may not even have realized this person was a law enforcement official. If that was the case, the client may have felt threatened by this person for some reason and committed assault for self-defense purposes.
A more serious charge is that of aggravated assault, which can be filed against someone under various circumstances. For example, attacking someone with a deadly weapon, such as a gun or a knife, typically results in an aggravated assault charge. Another type of assault charge in Texas is deadly conduct. Perhaps the most common example of this is someone firing a gun in an area where people are or might be present, even if this individual wasn’t intending to actually hit anyone. Someone who shoots out windows in an apparently abandoned building will likely not only be charged with vandalism but with deadly conduct as well, because someone may have been inside.
If you have been charged with felony assault, you need a skilled defense lawyer to help prevent the worst consequences. Contact Vinas & Graham today to discuss your case.
