What is the test for making a criminal threat?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Sokol, E072489 (Cal. App. 2020):

A criminal threat has five elements: (1) the defendant willfully threatened to commit a crime that would result in death or great bodily injury to another person; (2) the defendant had the specific intent that the statement be taken as a threat; (3) the threat was on its face and under the circumstances " 'so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat' "; (4) the threat caused the victim " 'to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family's safety' "; and (5) the victim's fear was reasonable under the circumstances. (People v. Toledo (2001) 26 Cal.4th 221, 227-228.)

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