{"id":55,"date":"2017-09-15T10:22:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=55"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:15:23","slug":"aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggravated Battery Conviction Upheld for Rowdy Florida Bar Patron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors are tasked with proving a defendant\u2019s criminal intent for certain crimes. Often, Florida violent crimes with an intent component also carry a harsher sentence. For instance, aggravated battery requires proof of a specific intent to cause great bodily harm, whereas felony battery does not. In a recent Florida appeals court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.3dca.flcourts.org\/Opinions\/3D16-0392.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decision<\/a>, the court upheld the jury\u2019s finding of aggravated battery because the evidence showed an intent to not only strike a bar owner but severely injure him as well.<\/p>\n<p>Late at night, the defendant arrived at a South Beach bar and began harassing a female bar patron. After the woman complained about the defendant\u2019s behavior, the bar manager spoke to the defendant, who agreed to stop harassing the female patron. The defendant did not stop, however, and a security guard escorted the defendant outside. The defendant became enraged; he spit in the security guard\u2019s face, stated that he would not leave, and threatened to kill the bar manager and the security guard. The bar manager called law enforcement after the defendant was escorted from the bar. The bar manager then stepped outside and was punched in the head by the defendant. When the punch connected, it knocked the bar manager unconscious. The bar manager fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. Medical expert testimony at trial indicated that the bar manager suffered brain damage as a result of the punch.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant appealed the aggravated battery conviction because he argued that he did not have the requisite intent as required under Florida law. Florida statute <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/STATUTES\/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;URL=0700-0799\/0784\/Sections\/0784.045.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">section 784.045<\/a> provides that \u201c[a] person commits aggravated battery who, in committing battery . . . intentionally or knowingly causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Aggravated Battery Conviction Upheld for Rowdy Florida Bar Patron\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors are tasked with proving a defendant\u2019s criminal intent for certain crimes. Often, Florida violent crimes with an intent component also carry a harsher sentence. For instance, aggravated battery requires proof of a specific intent to cause great bodily harm, whereas felony battery does not. In a recent Florida appeals court decision, the court upheld [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aggravated-battery","category-violent-crime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Aggravated Battery at Florida Bar Upheld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rowdy night at a bar? See why a Florida aggravated battery conviction was upheld and how bar fights can bring serious prison time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Aggravated Battery at Florida Bar Upheld\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Rowdy night at a bar? See why a Florida aggravated battery conviction was upheld and how bar fights can bring serious prison time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Aggravated Battery at Florida Bar Upheld","description":"Rowdy night at a bar? See why a Florida aggravated battery conviction was upheld and how bar fights can bring serious prison time.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Aggravated Battery at Florida Bar Upheld","twitter_description":"Rowdy night at a bar? See why a Florida aggravated battery conviction was upheld and how bar fights can bring serious prison time.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Aggravated Battery Conviction Upheld for Rowdy Florida Bar Patron","datePublished":"2017-09-15T14:22:16+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-07T13:15:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/"},"wordCount":602,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","articleSection":["Aggravated Battery","Violent Crime"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/","name":"Aggravated Battery at Florida Bar Upheld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","datePublished":"2017-09-15T14:22:16+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-07T13:15:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"description":"Rowdy night at a bar? See why a Florida aggravated battery conviction was upheld and how bar fights can bring serious prison time.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"Officer placing handcuffs on man\u2019s wrist after aggravated battery incident in Florida bar"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/aggravated-battery-conviction-upheld-rowdy-florida-bar-patron\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Aggravated Battery Conviction Upheld for Rowdy Florida Bar Patron"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/","name":"Tampa Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Tampa Criminal Attorney \u2014 Hanlon Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837","name":"Hanlon Law, PA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c09dcc7ad49cb4e69012e689c8f8279e82819db3eccff0cdeeccdacb7210dc98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hanlon Law, PA"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/aggravated-battery-arrest-florida-bar-patron.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}