Assault Defense Attorney in Cheyenne, Wyoming

In Wyoming, the difference between a misdemeanor bar fight and a felony that can send you to prison for a decade often comes down to a single fact: whether a weapon was involved or whether someone suffered serious bodily injury. Simple assault constitutes a low-level misdemeanor. Aggravated assault and battery is a felony carrying up to 10 years. Just Criminal Law defends people charged with assault and battery in Cheyenne and across Laramie County, and our founding attorney, Christina L. Williams, prosecuted violent-crime cases for the State before she began defending them.

Simple Assault, Battery, and Aggravated Assault in Wyoming

Wyoming separates these charges by what you did and how badly someone got hurt. The wording matters because each level carries a very different penalty.

• Simple assault (W.S. 6-2-501(a)): attempting to cause bodily injury when you have the present ability to do it. It’s a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $750.
• Battery (W.S. 6-2-501(b)): actually causing bodily injury by physical force. Misdemeanor, up to 6 months in jail, and a fine of up to $750.
• Aggravated assault and battery (W.S. 6-2-502): causing serious bodily injury, using a deadly weapon, or threatening someone with a drawn deadly weapon. This is a felony, with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The whole ballgame is the jump from battery to aggravated. One thing is a shove that leaves a bruise. The same incident, charged as aggravated because you had a bottle in your hand, is a felony with prison on the table. Wyoming actually has a separate felony for strangulation of a household member, W.S. 6-2-509, which is outside of the assault statutes. This is why domestic incidents often get charged more severely than people expect.

How the State Has to Prove Intent

Most assault charges turn on intent, and intent is rarely as obvious as the arrest report makes it sound. To convict you of battery, the State has to show you acted intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly. For aggravated assault, you usually have to prove that you intended to cause serious harm or knowingly threatened someone with a deadly weapon.

That’s a higher bar than “something happened and somebody got hurt.” Fights are chaotic. Witnesses contradict each other. The person who called 911 isn’t always the person who started it. Self-defense is a complete defense in Wyoming, and our state’s law gives people real latitude to protect themselves. We dig into who the initial aggressor actually was, whether the force used was reasonable, and whether the injury corresponds to the story police wrote down.

How Assault Cases Move Through Laramie County

A Cheyenne felony assault case goes through initial appearance, bond decision in Laramie County Circuit Court, then preliminary hearing, where the State must show probable cause. If bound over, the case is transferred to the First Judicial District Court for arraignment and, eventually, trial or a plea. Usually, a misdemeanor battery case is handled in circuit court from start to finish.

Bond conditions in assault cases frequently include a no-contact order with the alleged victim. Violating that order is its own criminal charge, even if the underlying assault case later falls apart, so it’s worth understanding exactly what the order covers before you do anything that could be read as contact.

What a Former Prosecutor Brings to an Assault Defense

When she worked for the state, Christina Williams was the one who decided which assault cases to charge as felonies and which to leave as misdemeanors. She knows what prosecutors are looking for and when a felony charge is more aggressive than the facts justify. We use that to push back early before the charge calcifies into something harder to reverse.

Sometimes that means showing the prosecutor that the injury doesn’t meet the “serious bodily injury” definition required by the statute. Sometimes it means raising self-defense with the evidence to back it. We can’t guarantee an outcome. We can make sure the State’s version isn’t the only one in the room.

Why Clients in Cheyenne Choose Just Criminal Law

• A prosecutor’s read on violent-crime cases: Christina L. Williams charged and tried these cases for the State.
• Self-defense done right: We know how Wyoming’s self-defense and Stand Your Ground law applies to a real Cheyenne case.
• 25+ years in Wyoming courts: Our team has handled more than 10,000 criminal matters since 2009, across Wyoming and South Dakota.