VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Crim. No. 21.400
Refusal to Submit to Blood or Breath Test
The defendant is charged with the crime of unreasonably refusing to submit to a [blood; breath;
blood and breath] test. The Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each of the
following elements of that crime:
(1) That the defendant was operating his motor vehicle on a highway; and
(2) That the defendant refused to submit to a [blood; breath] test to determine the [alcohol; drug;
alcohol and drug] content of his blood; and
(3) That the defendant was arrested for a violation of [Virginia Code § 18.2-266; 18.2-266.1; or
subsection B of § 18.2-272 or of a similar ordinance]; and
(4) That the refusal was unreasonable.
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.
If you find that the Commonwealth has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt any one or
more 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
dbf7156ad808a4459bd3cab43dba84861ba5c703bf533b8efaf7b786bf0ec87d
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