Exam Question: Is an Alligator a Deadly Weapon?

AP reports that a Port Orange Florida Man accused of hitting woman with gator:

A man hit his girlfriend [Nancy Monico, 39] with a 3-foot alligator and threw beer bottles at her during an argument in the couple's mobile home, authorities said.

David Havenner, 41, was scheduled for a bond hearing Saturday on misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of an alligator.

Note that Mr. Havenner is not charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and Ms. Monico only says the gator “hit” her not “bit” her. No, the biting comes later in the story:

Havenner's version of the story differed. He told investigators that Monico bit his hand because she was upset that they had run out of alcohol.

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3 Responses to Exam Question: Is an Alligator a Deadly Weapon?

  1. Jean says:

    The charge is simple battery, right? Sounds like battery, by both parties.
    And is ‘possession of an alligator’ a specific intent crime?
    Did he have to know it was an alligator, and say, not a leather thong?

  2. Barsk says:

    ‘Possession of an alligator’ is almost as good as a charge that has come up in the Bobo the Tiger shooting case: ‘transportation of a pig in a trunk’.

  3. Apparently you can be charged with “possession of an alligator” if you shoot it!

    (you break it, you buy it?)

    http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030715/NEWS/307150362/1134

    LAKE WALES — A Lake Wales man who shot an
    alligator one evening in mid-March will not be
    prosecuted, the State Attorney’s Office has decided.

    Alan Goolsby, a retired Lake Wales police officer, was
    charged with the unlawful possession of an alligator
    after he shot the reptile, which had walked onto his
    lakefront property.

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