{"id":1821,"date":"2025-08-05T16:57:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1821"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:57:25","slug":"carrying-a-weapon-while-committing-a-felony","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1821","title":{"rendered":"Carrying a Weapon While Committing a Felony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CR28-681.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS28-681.htm\">Carrying a Weapon While Committing a Felony<\/a>, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 4005 (08\/01\/25)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Reporter\u2019s Note<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although a defendant\u2019s possession of a weapon must bear some relationship to the felony committed while possessing it, \u201cthis relationship does not require that the weapon be used or brandished.\u201d <u>State v. Carter<\/u>, 156 Vt. 437, 442 (1991). Rather, \u201c[i]t is enough that the weapon had the potential of facilitating the commission of the underlying felony.\u201d <u>Id<\/u>. For additional clarifying language, see <u>State v. Lafayette<\/u>, 2024 VT 6, \u00b6\u00a013, 219 Vt. 32.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Supreme Court has held that a failure to explicitly instruct the jury that it must find such a relationship is not plain error where the instruction requires a finding that the defendant carried the weapon \u201cwhile\u201d committing the felony, and where the relationship was \u201cpatent\u201d or \u201cself-evident.\u201d <em>See<\/em> <u>Carter<\/u>, 156 Vt. at 442\u201343; <u>Lafayette<\/u>, 2024 VT 6, \u00b6 22.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Note that there appears to be no explicit statutory definition for the term \u201cdangerous or deadly weapon\u201d in 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 4005. The definition for that term used in the model instruction is drawn from 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 4016(a)(2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CR28-681.\u00a0 Carrying a Weapon While Committing a Felony, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 4005 (08\/01\/25) Reporter\u2019s Note Although a defendant\u2019s possession of a weapon must bear some relationship to the felony committed while possessing it, \u201cthis relationship does not require that the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1821\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":434,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1821","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1822,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1821\/revisions\/1822"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}