Criminally Negligent Homicide

Criminally Negligent Homicide

Criminally negligent homicide is defined by Texas Penal Code Chapter 19.05(a) and is committed when someone causes the death of an individual by criminal negligence.  Criminally negligent homicide is a State Jail Felony (between 180 days and 2 years in a State Jail institution).

Criminal negligence is defined by Tex.Pen.C. 6.03(d) and is occurs when someone is “criminally negligent, with respect to circumstances surrounding his (or her) conduct or the result of his (or her) conduct when he (or she) ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor’s standpoint.”

Again, this standard is extremely subjective, so here is a case where appeals courts have sustained convictions for criminally negligent homicide:  Chambless v. State, 368 S.W.3d 785 (Tex.App.– Austin, 2012), Defendant woke up in the middle of the night due to noises in his front yard.  Assuming it was a neighbors dog, Defendant fired a semi-automatic rifle three to five times into the yard.  Unbeknownst to Defendant, the victim, a neighbor was in his yard and had been hit by the bullets.