VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Crim. No. 18.610
Possession of Firearm While in Possession of Certain Controlled Substances
The defendant is charged with the crime of possessing a firearm while possessing a controlled
substance. The Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each of the following
elements of that crime:
(1) That the defendant was unlawfully in possession of [name of drug] which is a Schedule [I; II]
controlled substance; and
(2) That at the same time the defendant knowingly and intentionally possessed a firearm.
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 [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 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
a07223d6562dffb8876d7b9fb0d0ab49ae29eeb5a592c4dd94d05b584b863af6
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.