VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Crim. No. 18.200
Shooting/Throwing at Occupied Building
The defendant is charged with the crime of [shooting at; throwing a missile at or against] an
occupied building. The Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each of the
following elements of that crime:
(1) That the defendant [shot at; threw a missile at or against] a building occupied by one or more
persons; and
(2) That the life or lives of such person or persons may have been put in peril; and
(3) That the act was done with malice.
If you find from the evidence that the Commonwealth has proved beyond a reasonable doubt
each of the above elements of the crime as charged, then you shall find the defendant guilty of
maliciously [shooting at; throwing a missile at or against] an occupied building [but you shall not fix the
punishment until your verdict has been returned and further evidence has been heard by you].
If you find from the evidence that the Commonwealth has proved beyond a reasonable doubt
each of the first two elements of the crime as charged, but that the act was done unlawfully, and
not maliciously, then you shall find the defendant guilty of unlawfully [shooting at; throwing a
missile at or against] an occupied building [but you shall not fix the punishment until your verdict has
been returned and further evidence has been heard by you].
If you find that the Commonwealth has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt either or
both of the first two elements of the crime, then you shall find the defendant not guilty.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Criminal, Release 26, October 2025. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- crim-2025-10-01
- Content hash
49832b6b67597632347d7334f5369c9b3224215b3a21a0b6d861e28a4f9a8043
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.