4.5 Persons, Family, and Assaultive Offenses

Person Offenses by Element Family

Person-offense items reward fast element sorting: identify the result, then layer in mental state, victim status, weapon, restraint, relationship, and consent. The same death, injury, or restraint can land in several chapters.

The recurring TCOLE pattern for person crimes is to ask the student to identify the suspected offense, articulate probable cause facts, note evidence to preserve, and decide whether a warrantless arrest is supported. That sequence matters most here because victim safety and evidence (injuries photographed, weapons secured, excited utterances recorded) must be handled at the scene while the legal classification is still being sorted.

Homicide turns on mental state

Murder (PC 19.02) is intentional or knowing killing, or intent to cause serious bodily injury via a clearly dangerous act. Capital murder (PC 19.03) adds an aggravating circumstance — e.g., killing a peace officer or firefighter acting in duty, a child younger than 10, more than one person, or killing in the course of kidnapping, robbery, burglary, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or terroristic threat. Manslaughter (PC 19.04) is recklessness; criminally negligent homicide (PC 19.05) is failure to perceive a risk.

Assault grading

Assault (PC 22.01) has three forms: intentionally/knowingly/recklessly causing bodily injury; intentionally/knowingly threatening imminent bodily injury; or intentionally/knowingly causing physical contact the actor knows the victim will regard as offensive. Base assault causing bodily injury is a Class A misdemeanor; assault by threat or offensive contact is usually a Class C. It rises to a third-degree felony for family violence with a prior family-violence conviction, or for assault on a public servant, security officer, or emergency responder.

Aggravated assault (PC 22.02) adds serious bodily injury (injury creating substantial risk of death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss of a body function) or use or exhibition of a deadly weapon. It is generally a second-degree felony, rising to first degree against certain victims.

Worked example: a punch causing a bloody nose and pain = Class A assault. The same fight where the suspect pistol-whips the victim = aggravated assault (deadly weapon exhibited/used). A caregiver striking a wheelchair-bound elderly parent shifts to injury to a disabled/elderly individual (PC 22.04), a protected-victim analysis.

Kidnapping vs aggravated kidnapping

Kidnapping (PC 20.03) is intentionally or knowingly abducting another person; abduct means restraining with intent to prevent liberation by secreting the person where unlikely to be found, or by using or threatening deadly force. It is a third-degree felony. Aggravated kidnapping (PC 20.04) adds an aggravating intent — to hold for ransom or reward, use as a shield or hostage, facilitate a felony or flight, inflict bodily injury or sexual abuse, terrorize, interfere with a governmental function — or the use/exhibition of a deadly weapon. It is a first-degree felony.

Worked example: a robber forces a clerk into a back freezer at knifepoint to delay a 911 call → restraint + deadly weapon + facilitating flight = aggravated kidnapping, not mere unlawful restraint.

Family offenses and family violence

Chapter 25 includes interference with child custody (PC 25.03) and criminal nonsupport (PC 25.05). These require reading the court order and the conduct. A parent who keeps a child past the custody exchange in violation of an order may commit interference; a missed informal handoff with no order is a civil dispute.

For family violence, the relationship is what triggers enhanced treatment. Assault that causes bodily injury is normally a Class A misdemeanor, but it becomes a third-degree felony if committed against a family/household member or dating partner and the defendant has a prior family-violence conviction. Continuous violence against the family (PC 25.11) — two or more family-violence assaults within 12 months — is itself a third-degree felony even without prior convictions, and the jury need not agree on the exact dates.

At a family disturbance, document injuries, statements, the relationship, prior incidents, weapons, protective orders, strangulation signs, and child presence, because each fact can change the grade.

Protective-order and choking enhancements

Assault by impeding breath or circulation (choking/strangulation) of a family member is a third-degree felony and elevates further with a prior. Violation of a protective order (PC 25.07) is its own offense. These details let the exam distinguish a routine Class A assault from a felony in an identical-looking fight by changing only the relationship or the manner of injury.

Exam trap: Do not merge smuggling of persons (PC 20.05, transport/harbor) with trafficking (Chapter 20A), which requires compulsion or exploitation. And do not let injury severity alone answer an assault question — weapon use, victim status, relationship, and manner of injury change both the family and the grade.