When it comes to legal news, nothing should ever come as a surprise. Especially when it involves a couple. A man from Jacksonville was arrested on July 4th after he attempted to kill his girlfriend by choking her and steering her car into the woods.
The man was in the back seat of the victim’s car when he grabbed the steering wheel and tried to direct the vehicle from the road to a wooded area. This was all while stating the occupants of the vehicle would die. When the police arrived to the scene, they found the vehicle crashed into a wooded area.The suspect and the victim were dating for three years, which constitutes as a dating violence crime. The girlfriend told police that her boyfriend had punched her in the head several times.
He has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of battery strangulation. It won’t take a brilliant defense attorney to tell this man that in the state of FL, “Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon” is one of the most serious battery charges. But it will take a great lawyer to get him off.
It’s usually classified as a second degree felony with a sentence of up to 15 years in prison or a combination of prison and probation and a fine up to $10,000. Is there a difference between Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon and a simple battery? Not really. The only difference is that while it still involves “unwanted touching and/or intentional injuring of another”, a weapon is used. It must have been used in a manner that was likely to cause death, great bodily harm, or permanent disfigurement or disability.