Self-Defense Evidence and Choosing Counsel After a Strangulation Charge

Attorney Answer

You can present evidence of your ex's prior strangulation of you to support a self-defense claim, but it carries a real strategic cost your attorney needs to weigh with you — and for a criminal case you generally need a lawyer who practices in the county where the charge was filed, not one near where you now live.

California Evidence Code § 1103 lets a criminal defendant offer evidence of the alleged victim's character for violence — by opinion, reputation, or specific instances of conduct — to prove he acted in conformity with it. That is the vehicle for putting his history of strangling you in front of the court. People v. DelRio (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 47 shows how much weight that vehicle can carry: it is a published California Court of Appeal decision, so it binds California trial courts, and it reversed a murder conviction because the trial court had wrongly excluded significant evidence of the victim's violent character. Applying what it calls the "violent victim rule" under § 1103(a)(1), the court held that such prior acts come in as circumstantial evidence of how the victim behaved at the scene, and that the defendant need not have known about those acts beforehand for them to be admissible. That is real authority to press if a judge is inclined to keep the history out. Two costs still come with it: the judge weighs whether the evidence is more prejudicial than probative, and subdivision (b) then lets the prosecution rebut with evidence of your own character for violence. It is a trade-off, not a free option.

California Penal Code § 273.5 makes it a felony to willfully inflict corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition on a spouse, cohabitant, fiancé, dating partner, or the other parent of one's child, and subdivision (d) defines "traumatic condition" to expressly include injury resulting from strangulation or suffocation — which is why it is the likely charging statute here. Strangulation can also be charged under a different assault provision, so confirm with your attorney what was actually filed, because the elements shape the defense.

What you can do

1. Retain a criminal defense attorney licensed and regularly appearing in the county where your case is pending, well before your next court date — venue follows the courthouse where the case was filed, not where you live. 2. Tell your attorney everything, including what you did not tell police at the time. Full honesty with your own lawyer only helps your defense. 3. Identify and preserve contact information now for the witnesses to prior incidents, and tell your attorney the dates and details verbally while your memory is fresh. 4. Ask your attorney to weigh specifically whether introducing evidence of your ex's prior violence is worth the risk that the prosecution can then bring in evidence about you. 5. If you cannot afford private counsel in that county, ask the court there to appoint a public defender, or contact that county's bar association for a referral.