“[W]hether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, it will be bad for the pitcher.” Cervantes, Don Quixote

The Second Appellate District upheld the conviction of J.L., a 14-year-old boy charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he stomped on another boy laying on the sidewalk. J.L. appealed his trial court conviction on the grounds that just as hands and feet cannot be deadly weapons (the California Supreme Court has said a deadly weapon must be extrinsic of the body), because he did not “use” the sidewalk to assault his victim, the court could not convict him of assault with a deadly weapon.

“Not so!” affirmed the Appellate court. As in People v. Russell, where the Defendant was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon when he pushed his victim in front of a moving car, a defendant need not wield the deadly weapon in order to use it. The key is that the assailant takes advantage of a stationary object’s intrinsic qualities in way to cause a victim great bodily harm.

Via FindLaw.

Read the opinion.