Don’t Let Emotions Get the Best of You
Video Transcribed: Hi, this is Wagoner attorney Stuart Ericson. Today, we’re going to talk about threatening a violent act in Oklahoma.
This comes in two parts. One is a misdemeanor, which is threatening a violent act. That carries a punishment of up to six months in a county jail. The other is much more serious, is a felony, and carries up to 10 years in prison, is planning or planning a scheme of action to cause serious bodily injury or death with the intent to perform the violence. So it’s almost like an attempt statute, but it’s something beyond just a threat. It’s a threat plus some plan, action, some steps that could be discerned to get it to a felony level. So these are very serious.
They’re broad in effect and can sometimes seem vague. So as with every crime, the specific facts of the case are going to be very important. You would have to look at what the state’s evidence is. Is it just a witness that heard something, or is there better proof? Is there a text? Is there a recorded phone call? That sort of thing is most likely going to be the evidence in these types of cases. And the evidence is always going to determine whether there’s no crime committed at all, whether there might be a misdemeanor offense or maybe a felony defense. That’s very important for a defense attorney like myself to get all of the facts.
As with all criminal cases, I would get all of the police reports, written statements, documents, texts, videos, audio, whatever there is, and I would always discuss it with my client at the time that they’re charged to develop a defense or a plea bargain or whatever. So everything is going to be very fact specific.
But in this case, serious bodily injury or death must be the end goal of these threats. It can’t be a threat just to fight you, a threat… It’s got to be a threat of serious bodily injury, or death must be at stake. So these can be serious offenses. And usually, personal relationships are involved when threats like this happen, people who get emotional and say things maybe they don’t meme. So again, it’s going to be very important to maneuver through this, to try to get anything away from a felony and towards just no crime or a misdemeanor at worse.
So if you have any questions about this offense, threatening a violent act, reach out to me, Oklahoma criminal defense lawyer Stuart Ericson, at WagonerLawyer.com. Thank you.
