North Carolina Criminal Lawyer: Assault Inflicting Serious Bodily Injury

A person who assaults another person and, in doing so, inflicts serious bodily injury will be guilty of a Class F felony. Note that the bodily injury can be mental, if it is severe. “Serious bodily injury” is different from and worse than “serious injury”. Serious bodily injury requires proof of some kind of severe injury, usually requiring hospitalization.

Here’s the statute:

N.C.G.S. 14-32.4. Assault inflicting serious bodily injury; strangulation; penalties.

(a) Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who assaults another person and inflicts serious bodily injury is guilty of a Class F felony. “Serious bodily injury” is defined as bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or that causes serious permanent disfigurement, coma, a permanent or protracted condition that causes extreme pain, or permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or that results in prolonged hospitalization.
(b) Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who assaults another person and inflicts physical injury by strangulation is guilty of a Class H felony.