In People v. Aznavoleh, the assault attorney representing defendant appealed the decision claiming that the defendant’s conduct amounted to mere recklessness and not an assault with a deadly weapon. The circumstances included the defendant deliberately running a red light at a busy intersection. The Appellate Court disagreed and held that although a person may not be convicted of an assault with a deadly weapon “without actual knowledge of facts sufficient to establish that his or her act by its nature will probably and directly result in the application of physical force against another” this does not mean that a person must be subjectively aware of the risk that a battery could occur. This opinion is, in the opinion of a leading Santa Rosa criminal assault lawyer, incorrect. The Court further held that as long as the defendant is aware of what he/she is doing and a reasonable person in the defendant’s position would foresee that the act would probably and directly result in an application of physical force to someone else. In this particular case, the defendant was racing with another car and apparently took no steps to stop or avoid the vehicle that was involved in the collision. Based on those facts, the Court held that an objective person would appreciate that a collision with injury would probably occur.

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