NC · jury_instructions
N.C.P.I.—Crim. 235.42
USE OF AN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM NEAR A FOREST FIRE INTERFERING WITH EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CAUSING DAMAGE. FELONY.
The defendant, has been charged with use of an unmanned aircraft
system near a forest fire interfering with emergency operations causing
damage.1
For you to find the defendant guilty of this offense, the State must prove
five things beyond a reasonable doubt:
First, that the defendant was a [person] [entity] [State agency].
Second, that the defendant used an unmanned aircraft system.
Third, that the defendant did so within a [horizontal]2 [vertical] distance
of 3,000 feet from any forest fire within the jurisdiction of the North Carolina
Forest Service.
Fourth, that the use of the unmanned aircraft system interfered with
emergency operations.
And Fifth, that the interference proximately caused damage to any
[[real] [personal] property]] [[tree] [wood] [underwood] [timber] [garden]
[crops] [vegetables] [plants] [lands] [springs]] [[any other [matter] [thing]
[growing] [being] on the land]]. A proximate cause is a real cause, a cause
without which the damage would not have occurred, and one that a reasonably
careful and prudent person could foresee would probably produce such
[injury] [damage] or some similar injurious result. (The defendant’s act need
not have been the only cause, nor the last or nearest cause. It is sufficient if
it occurred with some other cause acting at the same time, which, in
combination with, caused the damage.)
If you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or
about the alleged date, the defendant was a [person] [entity] [State agency],
that the defendant used an unmanned aircraft system within a [horizontal]
[vertical] distance of 3,000 feet from any forest fire within the jurisdiction of
the North Carolina Forest Service, that such use interfered with emergency
operations, and that such interference proximately caused damage to any
[[real] [personal] property]] [[tree] [wood] [underwood] [timber] [garden]
[crops] [vegetables] [plants] [lands] [springs]] [[any other [matter] [thing]
[growing] [being] on the land]], it would be your duty to return a verdict of
guilty. If you do not so find or have a reasonable doubt as to one or more of
these things, it would be your duty to return a verdict of not guilty.3
History
N.C.P.I.—Crim. 235.42 (April 2024). N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 15A-300.4(a), (c)(4). Prepared by the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges' Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, assisted by the UNC School of Government; published by the School of Government.
Provenance
- Source
- sog.unc.edu
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-24
- Content hash
76deacc308d8620bc335637a52fe3e0b9d89960cdec357035b1ced3942cb57c7
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