Defense for assault, battery, robbery, kidnapping, and other violent offenses, serving Reno, Sparks, and Northern Nevada with over 20 years of courtroom experience
A violent crime charge usually comes out of a single moment that went wrong: a fight outside a bar, a confrontation that turned physical, a situation where you were sure you were protecting yourself. The trouble is that once officers arrive and one person is named the victim, the other becomes the defendant, and the report that gets written rarely captures how fast and how mutual these situations often are. Richard P. Davies, Esq. has built his career in Nevada courtrooms on cases exactly like that, because the same handful of facts can look completely different once someone actually investigates them instead of just writing them down.
Violent crime in Nevada also covers an enormous range, from a misdemeanor battery that means a fine and a record to category A felonies that can carry life in prison. Where a particular case lands on that spectrum can come down to surprisingly small differences in the facts, which is exactly why those details are worth fighting over. If you have been arrested or charged anywhere in the Reno area, the safest first move is to talk to a violent crimes lawyer before you talk to anyone else.
The Violent Crimes Nevada Prosecutes
Violent offenses in Nevada are spread across several statutes. The charges below are the ones that come up most often, and the ones this firm defends most.
Assault
Assault under NRS 200.471 does not require physical contact at all. It is the act of putting someone in reasonable fear of immediate harm, or attempting to use force against them. On its own it is usually a misdemeanor, but it becomes a category B felony when it involves a deadly weapon. Because assault has its own range of issues and defenses, it is covered in depth on our assault defense page.
Battery and Aggravated Battery
Battery under NRS 200.481 is the actual use of unlawful force, anything from a shove to a serious beating. A simple battery is a misdemeanor, but the charge escalates quickly. Battery with a deadly weapon is a category B felony carrying two to ten years, rising to two to fifteen years if the victim suffers substantial bodily harm or the battery is committed by strangulation. Even without a weapon, a battery that causes substantial bodily harm or involves strangulation is a category C felony. Whether the contact was actually unlawful, rather than accidental or defensive, is often the central question.
Robbery
Robbery under NRS 200.380 is taking property from a person by force, violence, or fear of injury, which is what separates it from simple theft. It is a category B felony carrying two to fifteen years in state prison, and using a deadly weapon adds a consecutive enhancement on top. Robbery remains a felony even when no weapon is shown and even when the item taken has little value, because the offense is defined by the force or fear used rather than by what was taken. Because robberies often happen fast and the people involved are strangers, these cases frequently turn on the reliability of an identification.
Kidnapping
Kidnapping under NRS 200.310 is charged in two degrees. First-degree kidnapping, which involves holding or moving a person for ransom, to commit another crime, or to inflict harm, is a category A felony that can carry life in prison. Second-degree kidnapping is a category B felony carrying two to fifteen years. These charges sometimes attach to incidents that began as something else, such as a domestic dispute or an argument, where the question of whether someone was truly confined becomes pivotal.
Mayhem
Mayhem under NRS 200.280 is a serious form of battery that disables, disfigures, or permanently injures another person. It is a category B felony carrying two to ten years in state prison. Whether an injury rises to the level the statute requires, and whether it was inflicted intentionally, are often where these cases are fought.
Battery With Intent to Commit a Crime
NRS 200.400 covers battery committed in order to carry out another offense, and the intended crime drives the penalty. Battery with intent to commit robbery, grand larceny, or mayhem is a category B felony carrying two to ten years; battery with intent to kill carries two to twenty years, the same exposure as attempted murder. Because the charge depends on what the State says you were trying to do, intent is usually the most contested element.
Domestic Violence
When a violent act is alleged against a spouse, partner, family member, or someone in the household, it is charged as domestic battery under NRS 200.485, which carries its own escalating penalties and its own consequences for firearm rights. Those cases have features that set them apart, and they are handled on our domestic violence defense page.
Homicide and Murder Charges
The most serious violent crimes, murder, attempted murder, and manslaughter, carry the heaviest penalties in Nevada law, up to and including the death penalty. Because these cases demand their own detailed treatment, they are covered separately on our murder defense page.
How a Deadly Weapon Changes a Violent Crime Case
The single fact that most often turns a manageable case into a life-altering one is the presence of a weapon. Under NRS 193.165, using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony adds a separate, consecutive prison term of one to twenty years on top of the sentence for the underlying crime, though that added term cannot exceed the sentence for the crime itself. The enhancement can apply even to someone who did not personally hold the weapon, as long as they knew a participant was armed.
What counts as a deadly weapon is broader than most people expect. Firearms and knives are obvious, but Nevada courts have treated ordinary objects as deadly weapons depending on how they were used. Because the enhancement can effectively double a sentence, whether a weapon was actually used, and used in furtherance of the crime, is one of the first things a violent crimes lawyer examines.
Why Self-Defense Is at the Heart of So Many Violent Crime Cases
More than almost any other category of charge, violent crime cases turn on the question of who was the aggressor. Nevada law does not require you to absorb an attack. Under NRS 200.275, the use of force is justified when it is a reasonable response to an immediate threat, and Nevada recognizes both the right to stand your ground and the right to defend your home, meaning there is generally no duty to retreat before responding to a genuine threat.
The catch is that self-defense has limits. The force used has to be proportionate to the threat faced, and the belief in danger has to be reasonable. Prosecutors routinely attack a self-defense claim by arguing the response went too far, that the threat had passed, or that the accused provoked the encounter. Building this defense usually means reconstructing the moment carefully, through witnesses, injuries, scene evidence, and anything that shows what the accused reasonably believed when the force was used.
Frequently Asked Questions About Nevada Violent Crime Charges
Usually it comes down to three things: whether a weapon was involved, how serious the victim's injuries were, and what the State believes you intended. A shove with no injury may be a misdemeanor battery, while the same shove with a weapon, or one that causes substantial bodily harm, becomes a felony. That distinction is not academic, since a misdemeanor is capped at six months in jail and handled in justice court, while a felony moves to district court and can mean years in prison.
Yes, in the right circumstances. A charge can be reduced when the evidence does not support the more serious version, for example when the injury does not meet the legal threshold, when a weapon allegation cannot be proven, or when self-defense is genuinely in play. Dismissals happen when the State's proof breaks down or a key witness is unreliable. What is realistic depends entirely on the facts and the evidence.
No. In Nevada the State brings criminal charges, not the person who was hurt, and a prosecutor can move forward even when the alleged victim wants to drop it. This surprises many people, especially when an accusation was made in anger and later regretted. The practical takeaway is that a case will not simply vanish because the accuser has second thoughts, so it still has to be answered on its merits.
A conviction can be sealed in Nevada, but the wait before you are eligible is tied to how the offense was classified, and violent felonies carry some of the longest waiting periods on the books. A charge that ends in dismissal or acquittal can usually be sealed far sooner. Keeping a conviction off the record in the first place, through a dismissal or a reduction, is almost always the better outcome.
How a Reno Violent Crimes Lawyer Builds a Defense
Because violent crime cases rest on contested facts rather than paper, a determined defense has real room to work. A Reno violent crimes lawyer earns his keep by holding the State to its full burden, forcing it to prove not just that something happened, but that it meets every element the charge requires.
Beyond the self-defense questions already covered, several other lines of defense recur. The reliability of identifications and eyewitness accounts is tested, since memory under stress is often wrong. Medical and forensic evidence is scrutinized to see whether an injury really meets the threshold the charge requires. Weapon allegations and sentencing enhancements are challenged directly, because they carry so much of the penalty. And where the evidence is strong, early negotiation can still reduce a felony to something far less damaging. In Washoe County, a felony violent crime case is prosecuted in the Second Judicial District Court. The firm also handles closely related matters, including assault, domestic violence defense, gun and weapons charges, and the full range of criminal defense work.
What to Do After a Violent Crime Arrest in Reno
An arrest is not a conviction, and the steps you take in the days that follow can shape how the case turns out. A few are worth getting right from the start.
Do not give your side to the police, then or later. The conversation that does the most harm is often not the arrest itself but the follow-up, a detective who calls a few days afterward and asks you to come in and clear things up. A statement made without a lawyer, however reasonable it feels at the time, can be turned against you, and a self-defense account is far better raised through counsel than in an interview room. Ask for a lawyer and say nothing else.
Stay away from the other person. If you have been released, contact with the alleged victim can violate a no-contact condition of your release or a protective order you may not know exists, and reaching out even to apologize can be treated as witness tampering. Any message that truly needs to reach them should go through your lawyer instead.
Preserve what supports your account. Injuries heal and witnesses scatter, so photographs of any marks on you, the names of anyone who saw what happened, and a written note of what you remember while it is fresh can all matter a great deal later.
Richard P. Davies, Esq. serves clients in Reno, Sparks, Lake Tahoe, and across Northern Nevada. When a case comes down to whose version a jury believes, the lawyer you bring in early can change how it ends. Call (775) 360-6894 to talk through what happened with a Reno violent crimes lawyer who will hear your side of it first.