11-01-06 A-2656-03T4
Where the State and defendant offered contrasting theories
of causation in a vehicular homicide prosecution, failure to
charge volitional conduct of another as an intervening cause,
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:2-3c, was reversible error. The State
argues that if the jury had accepted defendant's version of the
cause of the crash, she would have been found not guilty under
the "but-for" causation test of N.J.S.A. 2C:2-3a(1); and
therefore, the failure to give a jury instruction was harmless
error. We reject that argument.
