State v. Larson
Supreme Court of Montana
103 P.3d 524 (2004)
Mark Larson (defendant) drank alcohol with two friends for several hours, then drove them in his truck at high speed along a rural country road; none of the three occupants wore seat belts. The truck veered off the road and flipped several times, ejecting all three; one friend died. Larson's blood alcohol content was .12%. The State of Montana (plaintiff) charged him with negligent homicide, and he objected to the jury instruction defining criminal negligence as acting with conscious disregard of the risk that death would occur, arguing it misstated the law. The trial court overruled his objection, the jury convicted him, and he appealed.
Whether negligent homicide is the conscious disregard of a substantial risk that death will occur, amounting to a gross deviation from a reasonable person's standard of care in the same situation.