Oregon v. Alvarez
A139512
Facts: Maximilliano Alvarez is the Defendant in this case and Eric Johansen argued the versus the State of Oregon. The defendant appealed from conviction that was a gang-related assault. The defendant hit and beat a 16 year old with a metal baseball bat, and also his friend used a metal rod. The jury gave him guilty verdicts on two counts of first degree assault, and 3 counts of unlawful use of a weapon. The defendant pointed out an error on the first degree assault stating that the state did not prove that his assault caused the victim “serious physical injury” the defendant did not think that his actions did not cause damage to a point where the victim was at risk of dying. The court didn’t show evidence that when Mr. Alvarez hit the victim with the metal baseball bat that his hits created a “substantial risk of death”.
Questions presented:
1. Was the beating that Mr. Alvarez gave to the victim enough to cause a substantial risk of death?
2. Should the defendant be able to get rid of the first degree assault to a lowered charge because the prosecutor didn’t show how his actions made the risk of death?
3. What is enough to cause “serious physical injury?”
Answers/holding:
We conclude, the court decided that because a blow to the victims head hard enough to make a “ding” sound, to have a wound where it exposed the skull, to have to need four stables and, cause the victim to be unconscious it still was a substantial risk of death. Also the scar that was visible on the victim five months after the incident qualified as a “protracted disfigurement” even though the defendant said that he could hide the scar by growing out his/her hair but you can’t make the victim change their hair length for something like that.

Rationale:
Even though the prosecutor or the victim didn’t show how the offender beating him/her with the bat was enough for substantial risk of death the court decided that there was enough to prove it in the evidence. The loud ding that the metal baseball bat made when it hits the victim’s head, the fact that after the beating the skull of the victims was showing, forcing the victim to go to the hospital and needing to get 4 stables and making a scar show that was still visible 5 months later. There was really no need for the prosecutor to try and prove that the defendant could have caused death to his/her client because it was all laid out in the court, just needed to be all put together. Once the prosecutor realized that they made a mistake in not proving that Mr. Alvarez beating with the bat could have caused death to his/her client, they quickly got on that to prove that it could have caused death. There was a lot of evidence proving that the defendant could have caused harm to the victim.