Corporal Injury to a Cohabitant
If you have inflicted a traumatic physical injury to a spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, fiancé(e), former fiancé(e), your current or past boy/girlfriend or the father/mother of your child, you may be facing a corporal injury to a cohabitant charge.
What Does This Mean for You?
Since a corporal injury to a cohabitant crime falls under the California wobbler law, you could be charged with either a misdemeanor or a felony – it’s up to the prosecution. In other words, depending on the circumstances of the incident, your relationship with the alleged victim and your criminal history, the prosecutor will decide how to file your charge.
This is important as this decision will have very different consequences. For example, convicted of a misdemeanor you will face a prison sentence of up to one year in a country jail. However, convicted of a felony corporal injury to a cohabitant and you will find yourself serving a minimum two year sentence in a California state prison. Depending on the circumstances, this sentence could be increased up to a maximum four years.
What Can You Do?
Corporal injury to a cohabitant is defined by California Penal Code 273.5, which defines the crime as involving two distinct elements:
- One willfully inflicts a physical injury to an intimate partner, and
- As a result of the injury, causes that person a traumatic condition
Although many people mistakenly refer to corporal injury to a cohabitant as a domestic violence, domestic abuse or domestic battery crime, in fact it is very different. Unlike domestic battery, corporal injury to a cohabitant requires that the victim suffer some type of concrete physical injury. As a result of this difference, corporal injury to a cohabitant is considered a more serious crime than a domestic battery charge.
Because of its seriousness, it is important that you take all the right steps to defend against your case and, at the very least, to convince the prosecution to file the charge as a misdemeanor. The first step you need to take is to call an experienced California criminal defense attorney.
The Law Offices of Jonathan I. Kelman are your preferred partner in beating a corporal injury to a cohabitant charge. Practicing exclusively in California criminal defense, attorney Kelman is well positioned to represent your best interest.
Remember, when your future is on the line, call the Law Offices of Jonathan I. Kelman at 310.286.1218 for your free initial consultation.