Prosecution Of Corporal Injury On Spouse or Domestic Partner

Corporal Injury on a Spouse/Domestic Partner Prosecution – Penal Code section 273.5

To prove the defendant is guilty of corporal injury on a spouse, the prosecuting agency must prove the following 2 elements:

  1. The defendant willfully inflicted a physical injury on his or her former spouse or spouse, cohabitant, or the mother of his or her child.
    1. A willful act is done with the intention of causing a result.
    2. Cohabitants are two unrelated persons living together for a substantial period of time, resulting in some permanency of the relationship. Factors that determine whether people are cohabiting include, but are not limited to: sexual relations between persons in same residence, sharing of income or expenses, joint use or ownership of property, the parties’ holding themselves out as husband and wife or domestic partners, the continuity of the relationship, and the length of the relationship.
  2. The injury resulted in a traumatic condition. A traumatic condition is a wound or other injury to the body, whether minor or serious, caused by physical force.