Ruling says shard of glass can be ‘deadly weapon'

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a case in which a child attacked her father with a shard of broken mirror glass and smashed a picture frame over his head, a state appeals court Thursday rejected arguments that the shard of glass could not legally be considered a “deadly weapon.”

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a conviction on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in the Leon County case.

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The juvenile, identified in the ruling only by the initials S.G., contended that the 6- to 8-inch shard of mirror glass did not constitute a “deadly weapon,” a term that is not defined in the state’s aggravated-battery law.

The appeals court, however, backed a ruling by a Leon County circuit judge that the shard could be a deadly weapon.

“There was evidence from which the fact-finder (circuit judge) could determine that S.G. intended to use the shard to cause severe harm or death to her father, who was fearful and distraught; S.G. had already cut herself in multiple locations and was ‘angry, cussing, using all kind of crazy language’ as she slashed the shard toward him,” said the ruling by appeals-court judges Scott Makar, Thomas Winokur and Allen Winsor. “That his injuries healed and left no permanent damage doesn’t undermine the fact that the shard could have caused far worse harm, such as loss of an eye.”