A.R.S. § 13-1204 — Aggravated Assault

What aggravates an assault

• Causing serious physical injury
• Using a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument
• Causing temporary but substantial disfigurement or a fracture
• Assault on a bound or restrained person, or after entering a private home to commit the assault
• An adult assaulting a minor under fifteen
• Assault by strangulation or impeding breathing against a domestic violence victim
• Assault on protected victims — peace officers, firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers, prosecutors, and others acting in their official duties

Felony classes and sentencing

The felony class depends on the factor: serious-injury and deadly-weapon aggravated assault are class 3 felonies, disfigurement and strangulation variants are typically class 4, protected-victim variants range lower, and a deadly-weapon assault on a minor under fifteen is a class 2 felony. When the case is charged as a dangerous offense — which any deadly-weapon or serious-injury allegation ordinarily is — probation is off the table and prison is mandatory on conviction, with ranges that run years even for a first offense.

Defenses

The same justification defenses as simple assault apply — self-defense, defense of others — and they matter more here because the stakes are higher. The aggravating factor itself is also a battleground: whether an injury is legally “serious,” whether an ordinary object was really used as a dangerous instrument, whether the defendant knew the victim’s status where the statute requires it. Reducing an aggravated assault to simple assault changes the case from mandatory prison to a misdemeanor.

These are among the most serious charges we defend, and the margin between outcomes is enormous. Start with our assault defense page, or read the plain-language guide to what turns an assault into a felony.