RCW 9A.36.011

Assault in the first degree.

Known as the Washington Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 9A.04.010 to 9A.98.020 (401 sections).

Applied in 201 court decisions — leading case Bragdon v. Abbott (1998)

Most recently applied in State Of Washington, V. Bernard Bellerouche (March 2025)

2020 c 76 s 16; 1997 c 196 s 1; 1986 c 257 s 4.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person is guilty of assault in the first degree if he or she, with intent to inflict great bodily harm:

(a) Assaults another with a firearm or any deadly weapon or by any force or means likely to produce great bodily harm or death; or

(b) Transmits HIV to a child or vulnerable adult; or

(c) Administers, exposes, or transmits to or causes to be taken by another, poison or any other destructive or noxious substance; or

(d) Assaults another and inflicts great bodily harm.

(2) Assault in the first degree is a class A felony.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.