Assault | Penal Code 240 PC

California law defines an “Assault,” also known as a “simple assault,” as an attempt to commit violent injury on another person. 

For the defendant to be convicted at a criminal jury trial in California under PC 240, all of the following must be true: 

• The accused did something that was likely to result in the use of force against another person
  
  
• The accused did it intentionally
  
  

The accused had knowledge of the facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that this act would directly and probably result in force being applied to another person and when the accused acted / he had the ability to apply force to the other person. Although people often use the phrase “assault and battery,” assault in California and battery in California are actually two different crimes.
The crime of battery in California consists of the actual use of illegal force or violence against another person (rather than merely an attempt to do so).