Violent Crimes

Violent crimes are aggressive, intentional conduct that harms, attempts to harm, or threatens somebody else. Typically, prosecutors in Los Angeles charge these crimes as felonies, and if convicted, you could spend time incarcerated, pay heavy fines, and have a criminal record that could affect your ability to secure affordable housing and lucrative employment in the future. The competent legal team at Leah Legal Criminal Defense Attorney understands what is at stake and can aggressively fight for your rights and freedom.

What is a Violent Crime?

PC 667.5 defines a violent offense. The definition includes numerous 1st and 2nd-degree felonies and severe felonies. A violent offense is any crime that involves using a deadly weapon or threats of violence or physical harm to somebody else.

Violent offenses are categorized into the following classes:

• Serious felonies per PC 1192.7d
• Serious felonies per PC 1192.7c
• Violent felonies per PC 667.5c

PC 667.5c outlines sentence enhancements for given violent crimes. The enhancements increase penalties for defendants.  

According to PC 1192.7c, a defendant found guilty of a violent or serious felony should be sentenced to an enhanced imprisonment term. The enhanced imprisonment term should be more than the term mandated by law for the initial crime or the term below:

• Three (3), four (4), or five (5) years for a severe felony under PC 1192.7c
• Five (5), six (6), or seven (7) years for a violent felony under PC 1192.7c 

Certain factors judges consider when determining your sentencing include the following:

• Your criminal history—If you have a prior criminal history, you are likely to face more severe penalties
• The victim’s age —You are more likely to face more severe penalties if the victim is a minor
• The defendant’s age
• Your mental health
• The degree of injuries the victim sustained — You wi face severe penalties if the victim sustained severe injuries

Some of these violent crimes are as follows:

• Mayhem
• Murder or voluntary manslaughter
• Rape
• Sodomy
• Oral copulation
• Lewd or lascivious act with a minor below 14
• Robbery
• Arson
• Attempted murder
• Kidnapping
• Extortion
• Assault with the intent to commit a specified felony
• Continuous sexual abuse of a child
• Carjacking

Mayhem Per PC 203

Penal Code 203 defines mayhem as deliberately disfiguring or maiming a person. Before the judge can find you guilty, the prosecutor must prove that you acted illegally and maliciously and committed any of the following:

• Removed a person’s body part
• Disabled a person’s body part in a manner that is beyond temporary or partial
• Disabling or cutting a person’s tongue
• Slitting a person’s lip, nose, or ear
• Puncturing another person’s eye in a manner that makes the eye useless for ordinary sight

The law considers a disfiguring injury permanent even when it can be repaired with medical technology.

You can also be convicted of mayhem if you injure a person to the point of disability that is beyond temporary or sight. The disability does not have to be permanent. Provided it remains for a significant period, it could become the grounds for a conviction.

A conviction is punishable by the following penalties:

• Formal probation
• A maximum of eight years in state prison
• A fine not exceeding $10,000

The court could increase your sentence if the alleged victim is blind, deaf, above sixty-five years, below fourteen, quadriplegic, developmentally disabled, or paraplegic.

If any of the above is true, you will face up to a two-year potential sentence enhancement, as long as you were aware or must have been aware that the relevant reality about the victim is correct.  

A mayhem conviction is a strike under the three-strike law. If the defendant has a previous mayhem conviction and is subsequently prosecuted for another California felony, they will face twice the normal sentence for their second crime. If they face a third conviction, they accumulate a third strike, which is attracts 25 years to life imprisonment.

Murder under PC 187

The elements of the crime are as follows:

• You caused another person’s demise
• You acted with malice.
• You killed the person without justification or legal excuse

Murder can be first or second degree. You will be charged with first-degree murder if you do any of the following:

• Use poison, an explosive, a destructive device, ammunition to penetrate armor or metal, or a weapon of mass destruction.
• Inflict torture
• Deliberate, willful, and premeditated killing
• Felony murder, which is directly killing a person while committing a given felony

First-degree murder is punishable by twenty-five years to life imprisonment.

Capital murder is first-degree murder with special circumstances, such as:

• Killing for financial gain
• Killing at least one person
• Killing a judge, juror, prosecutor, firefighter, or police officer
• Killing a person based on their color, race, nationality, or region
• Gang Killing

Penalties for capital murder are life in prison without parole or the death penalty. 

Second-degree murder is a willful killing that is either premeditated or deliberate. It happens when you unintentionally kill a person by acting recklessly, and you should have been aware that death was a probable outcome. Any murder that does not count as first-degree murder is second-degree murder.

This crime attracts fifteen years or life imprisonment, although there are factors that could increase your sentence. 

Some of the legal strategies to fight PC 187 charges are as follows:

• You were defending yourself or another person
• You were insane
• The murder was accidental
• Law enforcers coerced your confession.
• You are a victim of mistaken identity

Voluntary Manslaughter

PC 192 outlines that you can be charged with voluntary manslaughter.

If you killed an individual in self-defense or you genuinely believed that you or another person was in imminent physical harm, but your belief was a miscalculation under the given circumstances, and the killing was an extreme response.

You can also be prosecuted for voluntary manslaughter if you kill an individual during a sudden quarrel or argument. To ascertain that you committed voluntary manslaughter without premeditation, the prosecutor must prove the following:

• The other person provoked you
• Consequently, your actions were due to intense emotions that hindered your judgment or reasoning.
• Your provocation could have caused a reasonable person to react rashly and without due deliberation, from passion instead of judgment.

Typically, in voluntary manslaughter, the killing happens following provocation, and there is no time to premeditate the killing. If you have time following the provocation to cool off and regain your capacity to think rationally, the killing will be deemed murder instead of manslaughter.

Voluntary manslaughter carries a punishment of eleven years in state prison. Sometimes the court can grant probation with a maximum of one year in jail instead of serving time. 

If you used a firearm, the judge can order an additional three, four, or ten years in prison. In this case, a conviction is punishable by a fine of ten thousand dollars, a strike, community service, attending counseling, or losing your right to possess or own a firearm. 

Kidnapping Under PC 207

California kidnapping laws can be categorized as either simple kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping.

Simple kidnapping happens when you move somebody else without the individual’s consent by using fear or force. On the other hand, aggravated kidnapping happens when you move another individual without the person’s permission by using fraud, fear, or force, and

• You held the alleged victim for ransom
• The victim is below fourteen
• You kidnapped the victim during a carjacking.
• The victim died or sustained bodily harm.

For you to be charged with kidnapping, the prosecutor must establish that you moved the victim at least a trivial or slight distance. The movement should be significant. To determine whether the distance is substantial, the judge considers the distance moved, whether the movement reduced the possibility of the defendant being caught, and whether the movement increased the risk of harm to the victim.

In this context, “without consent” means that the victim protested before you could move them. In other words, they did not voluntarily agree to go with you.

Please note that children and people who are mentally incapacitated, either due to extreme intoxication or mental disease, cannot give legal consent.

Simple kidnapping attracts up to ten thousand dollars in fines and eight (8) years in prison.

If you are found guilty of aggravated kidnapping, you can face the following penalties:

• Up to 11 years in prison if the victim is a minor below 14 during the crime commission
• Incarceration in prison for life with the possibility of parole if you kidnap the victim for a reward, ransom, or to commit extortion, certain sex offenses, carjacking, or robbery.
• Incarceration in a state prison for life without the possibility of parole if you kidnapped the victim for a reward, to engage in extortion, or for ransom, and the victim died or sustained bodily harm.

Although this crime carries severe penalties, there are numerous defenses that you can use to beat the charges, including the following:

• The victim consented to be moved
• The movement was not sufficient to qualify as kidnapping
• You are a victim of mistaken identity
• You are a victim of a false accusation

Carjacking under PC 215

PC 215 makes it a crime to take a car from someone else’s immediate possession by applying fear or force. Fear or force in this context means threats of harm or physical violence against the motorist or passenger.

Immediate presence implies that the vehicle was within the aged victim’s observation, control, or reach, so they could have kept the vehicle if you did not overcome them by using fear or applying force.

Violation of PC 215 is a violent felony that carries up to ten thousand dollars in fines and a maximum of nine (9) years in state prison. You will face these criminal penalties for each victim in the car during your crime commission.

Please note that you could face enhanced penalties if there exist aggravated factors, including the following:

• Carjacking with great bodily injuries
• Gang-related carjacking
• Carjacking using a firearm
• Carjacking using a gun
• Carjacking and killing or severely injuring a person using a gun

If a victim dies as a logical outcome of your violating PC 215, the felony murder rule holds you liable for first-degree murder. It does not matter whether the victim succumbed to a heart attack from the stress related to the incident.

Rape under PC 261

Per California’s PC 261, rape involves having sexual intercourse with another person without their consent. Sexual intercourse refers to any penetration of the genitalia or vagina with a penis. Ejaculation does not have to occur for the crime to become rape.

Violent or forcible rape, involving physically restraining someone down or harming them if they resist, is one of the ways that a violation of Penal Code 261 can occur. Other scenarios that can result in rape include:

• Faking your identity, and the alleged victim believes your lie
• Making threats to orchestrate the arrest, jailing, or deportation of the alleged victim, and the individual gets convinced that you hold a public official who can actualize the threats.

To consent, an individual should act:

• Voluntrily
• Freely
• With full knowledge of what will happen

Here are people who cannot legally consent to sex:

• Those severely intoxicated
• Those with severe mental disorders
• Those who are asleep or unconscious

Judges consider the facts of each case to determine whether consent existed.

Penalties and Criminal Consequences

Rape becomes a felony crime if the alleged victim is 18 or older, and its penalties include the following:

• Three (3), six (6), or eight (8) years in California state prison
• Mandatory sex offender registration for 20 years or life, based on the case circumstances

A conviction for rape of a minor 13 years or less is punishable by:

• Nine (9), eleven (11), or thirteen (13) years in state prison
• Lifetime sex offender registration

The conviction of rape involving a victim between 14 and 17 years attracts penalties that include:

• Seven (7), nine (9), or eleven (11) years in state prison
• Lifetime sex offender registration

Whether you reasonably believed that the victim was older or if they lied to you about their actual age cannot be used as a defense.

If the sexual assault victim sustained severe bodily injury, the judge could impose an additional three to five years in prison.

Possible Defenses

You or your defense attorney can fight the rape criminal charges using the legal defenses below:

• No sexual contact occurred
• The aged victim consented to the sexual intercourse
• You were falsely accused
• No sexual intercourse happened

Lascivious Act with a Minor below 14

Lewd or lascivious behavior refers to any sexual act that violates society’s standards of decency and can involve a minor. An example of lewd conduct can include groping a minor.

Lascivious acts refer to conduct that furthers offensive sexual desires. Lewd conduct involving children is considered offensive because children are too young to understand sexual activities and to consent. The conduct can also result in psychological trauma in the minors. 

Physical penetration is not mandatory for the conduct to be sexual. However, it turns lewd conduct into a more severe offense, such as sexual assault, sexual battery, or rape.

If the minor was 14 and the defendant at least ten (10) years older, the crime is a wobbler (the prosecution team can file the charge either as a misdemeanor or a California felony depending on the defendant’s criminal history and case facts). A misdemeanor conviction is punishable by 12 months in state jail.

Nevertheless, if the victim was below 14 and the lascivious act involved severe bodily injury, the judge may impose life imprisonment.

A conviction for this offense leads to mandatory sexual offender registration. A first conviction requires a 20-year registration, while a subsequent conviction will require lifetime sexual offender registration.

Here are some defenses to use when facing prosecution for this offense:

• The touching was accidental
• You are a victim of mistaken identity
• You had no sexual desire
• False allegations
• Police misconduct involving suggestive questioning and forensic unprofessionalism

Robbery under PC 211

During a robbery proceeding, the prosecution team should prove the following before the judge finds you guilty:

• You took property or an item belonging to someone else
• Another person had the property
• You took over the property against the owner’s will
• You deployed force or fear to prevent the owner from resisting
• Using force or fear was meant to deprive the owner of the property permanently or long enough to deny them its use or value.

Robbery can be grouped as either first-degree robbery or second-degree robbery. 

First-degree robbery occurs if:

• The robbery happened in an occupied boat, house, or trailer
• The robbery occurred while or immediately after the victim used an automatic teller machine (ATM).
• The victim is a passenger or motorist of a taxi, bus, streetcar, cable car, subway, trackless, or any similar for-hire transportation.

An occupied structure or house is inhabited or occupied if someone resides there, is present during the offense, or has left with the intention to return.

1st degree robbery is a California felony, punishable by:

• Felony probation
• A maximum of six years in prison
• Fines of $10,000

If this crime is committed in an inhabited place while together with more than two individuals, you face additional punishment of three (3), six (6), or nine (9) years.

Any robbery that is not 1st-degree becomes 2nd-degree.

The penalties for 2nd-degree robbery include the following:

• Felony probation
• Two (2), three (3), or five years in prison
• A fine of $10,000 

A robbery conviction involving great physical injury can increase your incarceration by three to 6 years.

Specifically, if the robbery involves using a gun, you face an additional:

• Ten years for deploying a firearm during a robbery
• 20 years if you intentionally discharged a firearm during the commission of the robbery
• 25 years or life in prison if, during the robbery, you inflict great physical harm or death using a gun

Your criminal defense attorney can collect and review case evidence to develop the best legal defense. Some of the strategies they can use to fight your criminal charges are as follows:

• You did not apply force or fear.
• Just because a person was intimidated by you does not imply you applied force or fear to take the asset. If the prosecution team does not have an eyewitness or video evidence, it can be hard for it to prove that you engaged in the robbery.
• You are a victim of mistaken identity.
• Claim of right defense—You honestly thought the asset belonged to you.

Arson Under PC 451

To secure a conviction for arson, the prosecution must prove the following elements:

• You set ablaze, burned, or influenced the setting abaze of a property, structure, or forest land
• You did so willfully and maliciously

The level of burning does not matter, because simple wood charring is enough proof of a fire.

Acting maliciously occurs when someone intentionally commits an unlawful act.

Arson Penalties

Arson is prosecuted as a felony. The specific punishments depend on the following:

• The type of property that was burned
• Whether someone sustained a burn injury

Malicious burning of personal property is punishable by 16 months, 24 months, or 72 months imprisonment.

Malicious burning of forest land or structure carries two (2), four (4), or six (6) years in prison.

Malicious burning of an inhabited property or structure conviction will result in three (3), five (5), or eight (8) years in prison.

Burning that causes great physical injury carries a sentence of five (5), seven (7), or nine (9) years.

Find an Aggressive Legal Team Near Me

Judges, prosecutors, and the police in Los Angeles take violent offenses seriously. You are less likely to receive sympathy from any government official, and they will be overzealous to convict you. When facing criminal charges, a lot is on the line, and having experienced representation by your side can make a significant difference.

At Leah Legal Criminal Defense Attorney, we understand how complicated the legal system is and the emotional toll it can take on you. We can offer personalized representation to develop the most effective legal defense and achieve the best possible case outcome. Please call us at 213-444-7818 to schedule your free case review.