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J.R. v. State1/31/2002
es punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation of the individual criminal defendant, rather than focusing on compensation for the injured victim. This difference in focus could lead to applying a different standard of care in criminal and civil cases.
But the major barrier that we see to applying an adult standard of care to this case is that J.R. was not charged with the reckless use of a firearm. The cases and commentary that the State relies on all refer to factual patterns where the juvenile defendant is engaged in hunting or otherwise directly injures someone through the use of a firearm. But in J.R.'s case, the State's theory of prosecution was that J.R. had incited Ramsey to commit the murders by showing him how to operate the shotgun, by taking numerous steps to encourage him to commit the crime, and by encouraging others not to interfere with Ramsey's plan to commit murder. The State's case rested on the inference that these actions showed that J.R. consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his conversations with Ramsey would result in Ramsey's shooting people.
We are unaware of any authority to support the claim that J.R. should be held to an adult standard for his actions of showing Ramsey how to use a shotgun and encouraging him to carry out the plan to take the shotgun to school and commit murder. Arguably, under Ardinger, the State's reasoning might apply to instances where a juvenile negligently entrusted a firearm to another person. But here, J.R. was not charged with careless use or careless entrustment of a firearm. If we held that juveniles are to be held to an adult standard of care for conversations that result in another person committing a crime, it appears to us that we would effectuate a broad and major change in the law - juveniles would frequently be held to an adult standard of care.
It was undisputed that J.R. knew that shooting people with a shotgun was dangerous. The dispute was whether J.R. knew or reasonably should have known that Ramsey would go beyond mere words and would actually proceed to gun people down at the school. To resolve this issue, the jury should have evaluated J.R.'s level of care against the standard of care reasonably expected of a juvenile - not an adult.
We accordingly conclude that Judge Wood erred in instructing the jury that J.R.'s actions should be judged by an adult standard of care rather than charging that J.R.'s conduct should be judged by the standard of a reasonable person of J.R.'s like age, intelligence, and experience under similar circumstances. We also conclude that Judge Wood erred in refusing to allow J.R. to argue to the jury that his actions were not reckless, when judged against the standard of a reasonable person of his age, intelligence, and experience under similar circumstances. We accordingly REVERSE J.R.'s convictions.
The judgment of the superior court is REVERSED.
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