{"id":703,"date":"2012-08-03T18:13:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T18:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=703"},"modified":"2020-09-17T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T18:14:31","slug":"reckless-endangerment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=703","title":{"rendered":"Reckless Endangerment"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>CR22-121.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS22-121.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reckless Endangerment Other than Firearm<\/a>, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025 (09\/18\/20)<\/li>\n<li>CR22-126.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS22-126.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reckless Endangerment With Firearm<\/a>, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025 (09\/18\/20)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Reporter&#8217;s Note<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Based on case law, the State must prove actual danger.\u00a0 If the charge is that the defendant pointed a firearm at the victim, the firearm must have been operational.\u00a0 <em>See<\/em> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> v. Longley<\/span>, 2007 VT 101, 182 Vt. 452; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Emilo<\/span>, 146 Vt. 277 (1985); <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. McLaren<\/span>, 135 Vt. 291 (1977) (overruling part of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Cushman<\/span>, 133 Vt. 121 (1974)).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statute, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025, was amended in 2000 by the addition of the phrase \u201cand whether or not the firearm actually was loaded.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, the State need not prove that the firearm was loaded.\u00a0 However, the State still must prove that it was operational or operable.\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">State v. Messier<\/span>, 2005 VT 98, 178 Vt. 412.\u00a0 The word \u201coperational\u201d means that the firearm was capable of operation.\u00a0 It need not be loaded and cocked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even though the statute describes a presumption, the model instruction is drafted to describe a permissive inference, to avoid a potential problem with conclusive presumptions under <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sandstrom v. Montana<\/span>, 442 U.S. 510, 514 (1979).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When a defendant is charged with reckless endangerment under 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025 for aiming an unloaded firearm, the judge and the attorneys should be aware of another statute, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 4011, under which the aiming of a firearm may be punished by a fine not exceeding $50.\u00a0 The existence of \u00a7 4011 may affect a judge\u2019s interpretation of \u00a7 1025 when the charge is based on aiming an unloaded firearm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">To better track the Model Penal Code, the definition of \u201crecklessly\u201d eliminates the sentence about \u201cpossible consequences of one\u2019s actions\u201d and the word \u201cknown\u201d that had appeared in a prior version of this instruction. For more information on the Committee\u2019s approach to defining recklessly, see the <a href=\"http:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=598\">Reporter\u2019s Note for the general definition of recklessly, CR06-141<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CR22-121.\u00a0 Reckless Endangerment Other than Firearm, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025 (09\/18\/20) CR22-126.\u00a0 Reckless Endangerment With Firearm, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 1025 (09\/18\/20) Reporter&#8217;s Note Based on case law, the State must prove actual danger.\u00a0 If the charge is that the defendant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=703\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":434,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-703","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/703","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/703\/revisions\/1560"}],"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=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}