Court Opinion

ID: 9604895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:28:00.357545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:07:27.767517
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEPHENSON, with whom CHIEF JUSTICE CARRICO and RETIRED JUSTICE HARRISON
join, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
A higher degree of negligence is required to establish criminal negligence than to establish simple or gross negligence.* To establish criminal negligence, the evidence must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant’s conduct was so gross and wanton as to show a reckless disregard of human life. Bell v. Commonwealth, 170 Va. 597, 611-12, 195 S.E. 675, 681 (1938).
“[A]n actual or constructive consciousness of the danger involved” is essential to prove wanton negligence. Wolfe v. Baube, 241 Va. 462, 465, 403 S.E.2d 338, 340 (1991). Thus, “[t]he act done must be intended or it must involve a reckless disregard for the rights of another and will probably result in an injury.” Infant C. v. Boy Scouts of America, 239 Va. 572, 580-81, 391 S.E.2d 322, 327 (1990).
In the present case, the victim was dressed in camouflage attire, and his face was blackened. The defendant had no reason to be*243Heve that the victim was nearby. They had gone their separate ways approximately 30 minutes earlier. They had seen no other persons all day. The defendant, an experienced hunter, thought he heard a squirrel “bark,” then “heard something like a squirrel jumping out of [a] tree.” He fired his shotgun upon seeing “a flash of movement” in a thicket. The defendant thought that he was shooting at a squirrel. He also believed that his gun was loaded with “bird shot.”
The defendant and the victim were not only good friends and hunting companions but the victim soon would have been the defendant’s son-in-law. It is inconceivable that the defendant would consciously show a reckless disregard of the victim’s life.
The only other involuntary manslaughter case arising out of a hunting accident that we have decided is Gooden v. Commonwealth, 226 Va. 565, 311 S.E.2d 780 (1984). In Gooden, a majority held that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the defendant’s conviction. 226 Va. at 573, 311 S.E.2d at 785. Although I joined the dissent, id. at 573-74, 311 S.E.2d at 785-86, I think the evidence in Gooden was much stronger for conviction than is the evidence in the present case.
In Gooden, the victim wore a red hat and red bandannas pinned to the front and back of his jacket, and he stood “on top of a knoll,” in the “clear,” upon a power line easement. Id. at 567, 311 S.E.2d at 781. Further, the defendant fired his gun even though “too many” hunters had been observed that afternoon along the easement. Id., 311 S.E.2d at 781-82. Finally, the victim’s companion saw no deer in the vicinity either before or during the shooting. Id. at 573, 311 S.E.2d at 785.
Justice Cochran’s dissent in Gooden contains the following statement which is equally appropriate in the present case:
No one can deny that this was a tragic accident. But [the defendant] was engaged in the lawful pursuit of a form of recreation sponsored by the Commonwealth. He was not required to insure the safety of all other hunters within the range of his [weapon]. The devotees of this sport are aware of a certain inherent risk of danger where high-powered weapons may lawfully be used. To convict [the defendant] of manslaughter, under the most favorable view of the evidence, is in effect to impose a rule of strict liability. We have not approved such a rule in civil litigation and we are not justi*244fied in applying it in a criminal prosecution. Although the evidence is sufficient to establish ordinary negligence, I do not agree that it is sufficient to establish criminal negligence.
Id. at 574, 311 S.E.2d at 786.
Accordingly, I would hold that the evidence, as a matter of law, is insufficient to establish criminal negligence. Upon that issue, I do not think that reasonable minds could differ. Therefore, I would reverse the trial court’s judgment.

 Simple negligence is the failure to exercise that degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise under similar circumstances to avoid injuring another. Gross negligence is “that degree of negligence which shows indifference to others as constitutes an utter disregard of prudence amounting to a complete neglect of the safety of [another]. It must be such a degree of negligence as would shock fair minded men although something less than willful recklessness.” Ferguson v. Ferguson, 212 Va. 86, 92, 181 S.E.2d 648, 653 (1971) (emphasis omitted).