from new york state penal law criminally negligent homicide a person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when with criminal negligence he causes the death of another person culpability definitions of culpable mental states criminal negligence a person acts with criminal negligence with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that such result will occur or that such circumstance exists the risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation