A person acts with criminal negligence when that person engages in blameworthy conduct so serious that it creates or contributes to a substantial and unjustifiable risk that another person’s death will occur, and when he or she fails to perceive that risk, and when the risk is of such nature and degree that failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation. Criminal negligence is not the same type of negligence as in a civil lawsuit that seeks money damages. The carelessness required for criminal negligence is appreciably more serious; it must be such that its seriousness would be apparent to anyone who shares the community’s general sense of right and wrong.
