CALCRIM No. 2578

Death, Mayhem, or Great Bodily Injury (Pen. Code, § 18755)

The defendant is charged [in Count] with (exploding/ [or]

igniting) (an explosive/ [or] a destructive device) causing (death[,]/

mayhem[,]/ [or] great bodily injury) to another person [in violation of

Penal Code section 18755].

To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the People must

prove that:

1. The defendant willfully and maliciously (exploded/ [or] ignited)

(an explosive/ [or] a destructive device);

AND

2. The explosion caused (death[,]/ mayhem[,]/ [or] great bodily

injury) to another person.

Someone commits an act willfully when he or she does it willingly or on

purpose. It is not required that he or she intend to break the law, hurt

someone else, or gain any advantage.

Someone acts maliciously when he or she intentionally does a wrongful

act or when he or she acts with the unlawful intent to annoy or injure

someone else.

[Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is

an injury that is greater than moderate harm.]

[Mayhem means unlawfully:

2. <A. Removing Body Part>

2. [Removing a part of someone’s body](;[or]/.)

2. <B. Disabling Body Part>

2. [Disabling or making useless a part of someone’s body and the

disability is more than slight or temporary](;[or]/.)

2. <C. Disfigurement>

2. [Permanently disfiguring someone](;[or]/.)

2. <D. Tongue Injury>

2. [Cutting or disabling someone’s tongue](;[or]/.)

2. <E. Slitting Nose, Ear, or Lip>

2. [Slitting someone’s (nose[,]/ear[,]/ [or] lip)](; or/.)

2. <F. Significant Eye Injury>

2. [Putting out someone’s eye or injuring someone’s eye in a way

that so significantly reduces his or her ability to see that the eye

is useless for the purpose of ordinary sight.]]

[A disfiguring injury may be permanent even though it can be repaired

by medical procedures.]

[An explosive is any substance, or combination of substances, (1) whose

main or common purpose is to detonate or rapidly combust and (2)

which is capable of a relatively instantaneous or rapid release of gas and

heat.]

[An explosive is also any substance whose main purpose is to be

combined with other substances to create a new substance that can

release gas and heat rapidly or relatively instantaneously.]

[<insert type of explosive from Health & Saf. Code, § 12000>

is an explosive.]

[A destructive device is <insert definition from Pen. Code,

§ 16460>.]

[<insert type of destructive device from Pen. Code, § 16460>

is a destructive device.]

[The term[s] (explosive/ [and] destructive device) (is/are) defined in

another instruction.]

[An act causes (death[,]/ mayhem[,]/ [or] great bodily injury) if the

(death/injury) is the direct, natural, and probable consequence of the act,

and the (death[,]/ mayhem[,]/ [or] great bodily injury) would not have

happened without the act. A natural and probable consequence is one

that a reasonable person would know is likely to happen if nothing

unusual intervenes. In deciding whether a consequence is natural and

probable, consider all of the circumstances established by the evidence.]

[There may be more than one cause of (death[,]/ mayhem[,]/ [or] great

bodily injury). An act causes (death/injury) only if it is a substantial

factor in causing the (death/injury). A substantial factor is more than a

trivial or remote factor. However, it need not be the only factor that

causes the (death/injury).]

New January 2006; Revised February 2012, September 2020, October 2025