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When South Carolina charges you with aggravated assault — assault and battery in the first degree, assault and battery in the second degree, or assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (ABHAN) — the case has moved out of municipal court territory and into General Sessions Court. The penalties are measured in years, not days. The conviction is a felony in most cases. And once it’s on your record, it’s there for life.
This is not a “wait for the court date and see what happens” charge. The early decisions in the case shape everything.
If you’ve been charged with aggravated assault in Rock Hill or anywhere in York County, request a confidential consultation. The sooner we’re in, the more we can do.
In 2010, South Carolina rewrote the assault and battery statute and created the modern tiered structure under SC Code § 16-3-600. The category your case falls into depends on the type of injury, whether a weapon was involved, and what the prosecution can prove.
Felony. Up to 10 years in prison.
You can be charged with first-degree A&B if the state alleges that you:
This is the entry-level felony in the structure. It still carries serious prison exposure.
Misdemeanor. Up to 3 years in prison and up to a $2,500 fine.
Despite being categorized as a misdemeanor, second-degree A&B carries felony-level prison exposure. You can be charged if the state alleges:
“Moderate bodily injury” is defined in the statute as physical injury that causes prolonged loss of consciousness, temporary or moderate disfigurement, temporary loss of use of a bodily member or organ, or that requires medical treatment when the injury would not normally require treatment without medical intervention.
Felony. Up to 20 years in prison.
ABHAN is the most serious assault charge short of attempted murder. You can be charged if the state alleges that you:
“Great bodily injury” means injury that creates substantial risk of death, causes serious permanent disfigurement, or causes prolonged loss of function of any bodily member or organ.
ABHAN is also one of the offenses listed under § 16-1-60 as a “violent crime” — which carries collateral consequences that misdemeanor assault doesn’t, including the lifetime firearm prohibition under SC § 16-23-500.
The pre-2010 charge of “assault with intent to kill” was largely folded into ABHAN and attempted murder under the modern statute. If you were charged with AWIK under older case facts or as part of a separate framework, the analysis is similar but with its own statutory framework.
A felony assault conviction follows you the rest of your life:
ABHAN convictions are also generally not eligible for expungement, which means the conviction is permanent. This is the central reason fighting the charge before conviction matters so much.
Most aggravated assault cases in York County come from one of a handful of fact patterns:
How the case gets charged early on shapes everything. We work to push back on overcharging from the first appearance.
South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground law (§ 16-11-440) is one of the strongest in the country. You have no duty to retreat from a place where you have a legal right to be before defending yourself or others against imminent harm.
In aggravated assault cases, self-defense is often the defense that wins outright. We can file a pretrial Stand Your Ground motion, and if the judge agrees the facts support self-defense, the case is dismissed before it ever reaches a jury.
To establish self-defense in SC, we generally need to show:
Read our blog on self-defense in SC assault cases for a deeper look at how this works.
Same legal framework as self-defense. Stepping in to protect a family member, a friend, or a stranger from imminent harm is a recognized defense — and an active one in many ABHAN cases where the accused was protecting someone else from the alleged victim.
South Carolina recognizes the right to use reasonable force to defend your property. The line between “reasonable” and “excessive” gets litigated case by case, but it’s a real defense.
Especially in group altercations and chaotic scenes, the person police charge isn’t always the right one. We work the witness statements, the body cam timing, the surveillance footage, the medical records, and the dispatch logs to test the identification evidence.
The line between third-degree, second-degree, first-degree, and ABHAN is the line between misdemeanor and felony — and between 30 days and 20 years. The state has to prove the level of injury they’re alleging.
We push back on:
A successful injury-classification challenge can collapse a felony down to a misdemeanor.
If the case involves statements made during a custodial interrogation without proper Miranda warnings, evidence obtained from an illegal search, or a witness identification procedure that was unduly suggestive, we file the motions to suppress.
When the case isn’t winnable at trial, the next move is negotiation. ABHAN charges can be reduced to first-degree A&B, first-degree to second-degree, second-degree to third-degree (a misdemeanor handled in summary court). Each step down is a major reduction in exposure and collateral consequences.
We’ve gotten ABHAN charges reduced to misdemeanor third-degree in cases where the injury evidence didn’t support “great bodily injury” and the self-defense facts gave the state reason to negotiate.
1. Arrest and booking at the Moss Justice Center for York County felonies, or the Rock Hill municipal lockup for related city charges.
2. Bond hearing within 24 hours. ABHAN bond can be high; we file motions for reduction when warranted.
3. First appearance and arraignment in General Sessions Court.
4. Discovery — police reports, body cam, dash cam, medical records, witness statements, 911 audio.
5. Pretrial motions — suppression motions, Stand Your Ground motions, motions to reduce charges, motions in limine.
6. Negotiation — most cases resolve here, with reductions, plea offers, or PTI applications when eligible.
7. Trial — a small percentage go to trial. ABHAN trials are serious matters that get prepared like the felony cases they are.
A felony assault case typically takes 9 to 18 months from arrest to resolution. We keep clients informed at every step.
The first 72 hours of an aggravated assault case set the trajectory.
1. Stop talking. Don’t try to explain at the scene. Don’t call the alleged victim to apologize. Don’t post about it. Anything you say goes into the prosecution’s file.
2. Don’t contact the alleged victim. Even if you think you can clear it up. Bond conditions usually prohibit contact, and any communication can support new charges (witness intimidation, contempt).
3. Preserve evidence that supports your version. Surveillance footage from bars, restaurants, and parking lots gets overwritten in days. Doorbell cameras, group chats, text messages, voicemails — get them preserved while they exist.
4. Get medical evidence on yourself. If you were injured during the incident — even if you weren’t the one charged with hurting someone — get to a doctor and get the injuries documented. Self-defense cases live and die on this.
5. Get a defense attorney involved before the bond hearing. ABHAN bond can be denied entirely. Conditions matter. Strategy starts at day one.
Our founder Colin Okoye is a former public defender. He’s tried felony assault cases on both sides — as defense counsel now, and as a former prosecutor’s adversary in the same courtrooms. He knows what the 16th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office does with these files: where they overcharge, where they’re willing to negotiate, and where they take cases to trial.
We work cases at:
Aggravated assault gets the kind of attention these cases require. Not a templated approach. Not a guilty plea by default.
Learn more about our Rock Hill assault & battery practice, our criminal defense work generally, or meet Colin Okoye.
Is assault and battery 1st degree a felony in South Carolina?
Yes. First-degree A&B is a felony with up to 10 years in prison.
Is assault and battery 2nd degree a felony in South Carolina?
Technically no — second-degree A&B is classified as a misdemeanor under § 16-3-600(D), but it carries up to 3 years in prison, which is felony-level exposure. It’s tried in General Sessions Court for that reason.
What’s the difference between ABHAN and attempted murder?
ABHAN requires great bodily injury or use of means likely to cause death or great bodily injury. Attempted murder requires specific intent to kill. The state has to prove a higher mental state for attempted murder, which is why ABHAN charges are sometimes used when the prosecution doesn’t think it can prove intent to kill beyond a reasonable doubt.
Can ABHAN be expunged in South Carolina?
ABHAN convictions are generally not eligible for expungement under SC law. Dismissals, charges resolved through PTI, and charges that resulted in not-guilty verdicts may be eligible.
What if I was defending myself?
Self-defense is a complete defense. We can file a pretrial Stand Your Ground motion, and if the judge agrees the facts support self-defense, the case is dismissed before trial.
What if the alleged victim wants to drop the charges?
The decision to drop charges is the prosecutor’s. Even if the alleged victim wants the case to go away, the state can proceed. That said, a reluctant or recanting victim significantly weakens the prosecution.
An aggravated assault charge is one of the most serious things you can face short of murder. The strategy that protects you starts at day one.
Request a consultation or schedule an appointment. The first conversation is protected by attorney-client privilege. We’ll go through the facts, evaluate the defenses, and tell you straight what your options are.
Read our reviews from clients who came to us facing felony charges and walked out the other side.
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