Phoenix Aggravated Assault Lawyer

Criminal Defense Attorney Serving Clients Throughout All of Arizona

In Arizona, if a crime involves someone being placed in fear by a gun or a knife, or results in any serious injury, prison is mandatory upon conviction. Although people frequently act in self-defense, or in the defense of others, they are nonetheless charged and prosecuted as though there was no justification for their conduct. Recent changes in Arizona law make it easier to prove self-defense in aggravated assault cases.

Why Choose Us?

• Attorney Jason Lamm has spent over two decades of his career in criminal proceedings.
• While he now takes the seat of the defense counsel, he was a long-celebrated prosecutor of major felony crimes.
• This means that he is in the position to expect and anticipate what the prosecution will do in your case and combat it beforehand.
• He utilizes his investigative skills honed during his days in prosecution to investigate in favor of your defense.

Another recent change to Arizona law has created a new type of aggravated assault.

Law enforcement officers and prosecutors are often very quick to file aggravated assault charges based upon strangulation as it is a ‘hot topic’ and because many agencies are receiving grant money or other funding to pursue this type of case. When a victim claims that they were choked or strangled during an assault, typically during a domestic violence incident, law enforcement officers will ask that a forensic medical examination is conducted.

This is now possible due to the funding and grants. During the forensic medical examination, a specially trained nurse will examine the victim for marks or other evidence that is consistent with choking or strangulation. For example, it is common to see popped blood vessels in the eye of someone who has been choked or strangled.

Like many types of government funding, it’s a use it or lose it situation law enforcement and prosecutors are now aggressively pursuing. This is why there has been a trend toward the over-charging of aggravated assault by choking and strangulation. Law enforcement and prosecutors rely on a published study concerning medical evidence of strangulation, but most don’t understand the study and take liberties in using its conclusions to bolster their case. 

In a recent case, our client was charged with aggravated assault based on an allegation that he choked his spouse in a domestic violence altercation. We retained perhaps the best expert in the country on strangulation to evaluate the case – the author of the study on which law enforcement and prosecutors were relying. Our expert witness showed how prosecutors were misquoting and misinterpreting her study and how the evidence actually showed that no choking or strangulation occurred. The aggravated assault charges against our client were dismissed.