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Criminal Law Keyed to Kadish
Santillanes v. New Mexico
Citation:
115 N.M. 215, 849 P.2d 358 (1993)Facts
Vincent Santillanes was convicted of child abuse after cutting his 7-year-old nephew’s neck with a knife during an altercation. At trial, Santillanes requested a jury instruction defining negligence as requiring a “gross deviation” from the standard of care (criminal negligence standard), but the court instead instructed the jury using an ordinary civil negligence standard. The jury convicted Santillanes of child abuse involving no death or great bodily injury under Section 30-6-1(C). Santillanes claimed that the civil negligence standard was improper for a felony offense and that the statute was unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. His defense at trial was that his nephew injured himself when he jumped into a fishing line strung between two trees, not that he inadvertently caused the injury.
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