Arizona Aggravated Criminal Damage: ARS 13-1604 click for a free consultation

Posted on March 14, 2025 in Arizona Revised Statutes

ARS 13-1604 is Arizona’s aggravated criminal damage statute, which makes it illegal to. In this post, we examine Arizona’s aggravated criminal damage law. 

We will cover the types of aggravated criminal damage Arizona law makes punishable, the types of prison sentences and fines you can face if you are convicted of aggravated criminal damage, and possible defenses to a charge of aggravated criminal damage.

If you have been charged with aggravated criminal damage in Arizona under ARS 13-1604, you need elite legal defense from an attorney at AZ Defenders. Call us at (480) 456-6400 or use our contact form to contact an attorney.

What is Aggravated Criminal Damage in Arizona?

In some ways, aggravated criminal damage is the same as regular criminal damage. It involves intentional or reckless behavior that include defacing property, damaging property, or tampering with property that belongs to another without the owner’s permission.

How is Aggravated Criminal Damage Different From Regular Criminal Damage?

There are six kinds of regular criminal damage in Arizona. The aggravated criminal damage statute adds four more kinds of criminal damage that are more serious in nature. Under ARS 13-1604(A), these include intentionally or recklessly:

• Defacing, damaging, or in any way changing the appearance of any building structure or surface, personal property, or place used for worship or any religious purpose.
  
• Defacing or damaging any building, structure, or place used as a school or educational facility.
  
• Defacing, damaging, or tampering with any cemetery, mortuary, or personal property of the cemetery or mortuary or other facility used for the purpose of burial or memorializing the dead.
  
• Defacing, damaging, or tampering with any utility or agricultural infrastructure or property, construction site, or existing structure for the purpose of obtaining nonferrous metals.

So, the first main difference with aggravated criminal damage is that its variations are more specific concerning the public or private property it covers: religious and educational facilities, cemeteries and mortuaries, utility and agricultural property, and mining-related structures.

What is Reckless Behavior?

ARS 13-105(10)(c) defines criminal recklessness as including the following elements:

• Consciously disregarding a risk.
• Such risk must be substantial and unjustifiable.
• As a result, the risky outcome must occur, or the circumstances must exist for it to happen.

A substantial and unjustifiable risk constitutes a gross deviation from a reasonable person’s behavior in the same situation.

It is no defense if you are not aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk because you are voluntarily intoxicated.

What is Intentional Behavior?

Under ARS 13-105(10)(a), to prove intent, the prosecution must show you meant to engage in the unlawful conduct or for the result to happen.

What Are the Penalties for Aggravated Criminal Damage in Arizona?

The second main difference between regular criminal damage and aggravated criminal damage is what you might expect: the penalties upon conviction are more severe.

The degree of severity depends on the kind of property damage and the extent of the damage caused as measured in dollars. The table below breaks down the different penalty levels.

Type of Criminal Damage	Dollar Value of the Damage	Penalties (First Offense)
Aggravated criminal damage to:A religious building, structure, or other place of worship A school or educational facility A cemetery or mortuary	$10,000 or more	Class 4 felony Prison sentence from 1 to 3.75 years
Aggravated criminal damage to:any utility or agricultural infrastructure or property, construction site or existing structure for the purpose of obtaining nonferrous metals.	$10,000 or more	Class 3 felony Prison sentence from 2 to 8.75 years
Aggravated criminal damage to: A religious building, structure, or other place of worship A school or educational facility A cemetery or mortuary	At least $1500 but less than $10,000	Class 5 felony Prison sentence of 6 months to 2.5 years
Aggravated criminal damage to any utility or agricultural infrastructure or property, construction site or existing structure for the purpose of obtaining nonferrous metals.	At least $1500 but less than $10,000	Class 4 felony Prison sentence from 1 to 3.75 years
Aggravated criminal damage to: A religious building, structure, or other place of worship A school or educational institution A cemetery or mortuary	Less than $1500	Class 6 felony 4 months to 2 years in prison
Aggravated criminal damage to any utility or agricultural infrastructure or property, construction site or existing structure for the purpose of obtaining nonferrous metals.	Less than $1500	Class 5 felony Prison sentence of 6 months to 2.5 years

Other Penalties for Aggravated Criminal Damage

Felony-level crimes in Arizona carry the potential for up to $150,000 in fines.

Under Arizona law, aggravated criminal damage penalties are all felony levels compared to regular criminal damage penalties, except that at the judge’s discretion, a court can reduce a class 6 felony conviction to a class 1 misdemeanor at sentencing.

In addition to the court-ordered sentence, a felony conviction can negatively impact your quality of life and ability to exercise certain rights, including but not limited to:

• You will have a felony conviction on your criminal record.
• You could face difficulty finding a place to rent.
• You could have trouble finding employment.
• If you have any professional licenses in Arizona, you may lose them.
• You could be required to perform community service.
• You may have a probation requirement to satisfy.
• You will lose your right to buy, purchase or possess a deadly weapon.
• You will lose your right to vote in public elections.

How Courts Calculate the Value of Aggravated Criminal Damage

When a court determines the value of the damage done to a property, ARS 13-1604(C) establishes the criteria to use:

• The cost of repair or replacement of the damaged property
• Reasonable labor costs
• Reasonable material costs
• Costs of equipment needed to abate or repair property damage

What Are Possible Defenses to a Criminal Damage Charge?

The defenses to a charge of criminal damage in Arizona will usually seek to cast reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury about how the defendant acted (the defendant’s state of mind) and the value of the damage to the property.

State of Mind Defenses

Criminal damage is not a matter of negligent behavior but rather must be reckless or intentional. So, if the defense can show that the defendant’s state of mind when committing the alleged act of criminal damage was not reckless or intentional, this defeats a key element that the prosecution must prove to get a conviction.

Whether A Substantial Risk or Unjustifiable Risk Existed

The risk involved in criminal damage must be more than ordinary or negligent to constitute reckless behavior. If a person acts in such a way that the risk is less than substantial and/or there was not an unjustifiable risk, this can remove one of the elements the prosecution must prove.

Property Damage Value Defenses

Because the severity of the penalties for criminal damage depends mainly on the value of the damage done to the property of another, the better the defense can present evidence to establish a lower value to that damage, the less severe any resulting punishment will be if the prosecution secures a conviction.

Other Defenses

Some common defenses in other criminal defense cases may also be available in an aggravated criminal damage prosecution. These include:

• The police did not have probable cause to arrest you.
• The police did not properly inform you of your Miranda rights prior to being subjected to questioning while in custody
• The police committed a Miranda rights violation while you were in custody.
• The police committed forensic flaws with its investigation of the physical evidence they have obtained against you.
• The police conducted an illegal search and/or seizure.

Have You Been Charged With Aggravated Criminal Damage in Arizona?

If you are facing an Arizona aggravated criminal damage charge, the felony-level penalties make it important to have the best possible criminal defense throughout the legal process.

The elite lawyers at AZ Defenders have over 150 years of experience defending criminal damage and aggravated criminal damage charges. Call today at 480-456-6400 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation with a criminal defense lawyer for your aggravated criminal damage case.