What is assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Oklahoma and what are the potential penalties?
Answer: Assault and battery with a dangerous weapon occurs when a person, who with intent to do bodily harm, and has no justifiable or excusable cause, commits an assault, battery, or assault and battery on the person of another with any sharp or dangerous weapon. An assault and battery with a dangerous weapon can also occur who—when a person, without justifiable or excusable cause, shoots at another with any kind of firearm, air gun, conductive energy weapon, or any other means whatsoever, with the intent to injure that person without the intent to kill that person, or without the intent to commit any felony, would be guilty of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. So if you can show an accident or an accidental discharge of a firearm, or even a reckless discharge of a firearm, where there was no intent to harm the other person, no intent to injure or kill—then it’s an assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Unless it is a sharp, or dangerous weapon, then the assault and battery—I know that it gets confusing, but it’s—for example, a knife would be a dangerous weapon, not necessarily a deadly weapon. But with the, if it’s a firearm, those are inherently determined or deemed to be deadly weapons just simply because of their nature. However, if the person didn’t have an intent to kill or injure, then it would fall back down from shooting with the intent to kill, or assault and battery with a deadly weapon, to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.