Sarasota Violent Crime Lawyer

There are many different crimes that count as violent crimes in Florida. These include aggravated battery, aggravated assault, robbery, and rape. Prosecutors take violent crimes seriously and can aggressively pursue harsh penalties. In addition to prison time and significant fines, you may face other consequences affecting a professional license, your ability to bear arms, and your social reputation. At Hanlon Law, our Sarasota violent crime lawyer provides steadfast defense representation in charges involving violent crimes and safeguards the rights of the accused.

Violent crimes often involve actual harm, as in the case of a charge of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement. Sometimes they involve a credible threat of violence, such as aggravated assault. Like other crimes, violent crimes must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In some cases, a Sarasota criminal attorney’s goal in defending these charges is to raise a reasonable doubt about one or more elements.

For example, suppose that you pushed someone who stumbled backward and started yelling at you before inadvertently falling down a flight of stairs and hitting rocks at the bottom of the stairs so that they suffered brain damage. You could be charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and disability. In that case, a violent crime attorney in Sarasota might try to raise a reasonable doubt about intent. The prosecutor will need to prove that you intentionally struck or touched another person, and in doing so, you intentionally or knowingly caused great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement. Perhaps in that case an attorney would argue that you did not intentionally or knowingly cause the brain damage because you did not intend that the person fall down the stairs and hit the stones.

Suppose that, for another example, you brought a gun to an encounter at which you planned to meet a minor in person whom you had met on the Internet. Perhaps you would be charged not only with traveling to meet a minor but also with aggravated assault and a firearms offense. To establish aggravated assault, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you unlawfully and intentionally threatened by act or word to do violence to the victim. Also, they must show that at the time of making the threat, you seemed to have the ability to carry out the threat, your threat triggered a well-founded fear in the minor that violence was about to occur, and you made the assault with a fully developed intent to perpetrate a felony. In that case, a Sarasota violent crime attorney might aim to raise a reasonable doubt about whether you intentionally threatened by your acts or words to do violence and about whether you really seemed to have the ability to carry out the threat.

For a third example of a violent crime, you could be charged with aggravated sexual battery. The prosecutor would need to show that you had oral, anal, or vaginal contact with the victim using a sexual organ or object under an aggravating circumstance. The aggravating circumstance in this situation could include coercion through violence or threats that are likely to cause a serious personal injury, the victim's physical helplessness, coercion through threats of retaliation that the victim reasonably believes that you could execute, drugging the victim to incapacitation, taking advantage of the victim’s known mental defect, attacking a physically incapacitated victim, or being a law enforcement officer or otherwise in authority or control as a governmental agent or employee. It might be appropriate to challenge the facts surrounding the aggravating circumstance, or possibly your attorney could argue that there was consent.

A conviction is never assured, but it is critical to retain an experienced attorney to fight for you. In some cases, it is not possible to secure an acquittal at trial, but it may be possible to secure a plea deal involving lesser charges or with penalties that are less harsh than what would be imposed by the court.

If you have been charged with a violent crime, you should retain an experienced lawyer right away. Will Hanlon has knowledgeably represented the accused since 1994. You can call Hanlon Law at 941.462.1789 or complete our online form if you have been charged with resisting an officer, felony battery, or another violent crime.