## Facts

- Richard W. Flayhart and Beatrice M. Flayhart cared for Richard’s adult brother, Terry Flayhart, who had severe developmental and physical disabilities and was totally dependent on them for basic care.
- Near death, Terry weighed about 75 pounds.
- Medical proof attributed death to malnutrition and lung inflammation, with pneumonia as a complication; the lung condition was consistent with aspirating stomach contents from food eaten about six hours earlier.
- The prosecution alleged Terry died from neglect while living in defendants’ home.
- Evidence included defendants’ statements to deputies about their care, Terry’s background, a trust fund of about $122,000 intended for his care, and proof he had not seen his regular doctor for the last two years of his life.
- Defendants were charged with reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide on a theory that they acted together to cause Terry’s death.

## Issues

1. Whether accomplice liability under N.Y. Penal Law § 20.00 can apply to criminally negligent homicide, where the culpable mental state is a failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions for criminally negligent homicide.
- The court held accomplice liability is available for criminally negligent homicide; it is not logically or statutorily barred because the offense is “unintentional.”
- The court reasoned that § 20.00 does not require an accomplice to intend the prohibited result (death), but to share the mental culpability required for the offense and intentionally aid the relevant conduct.
- Because nothing in the criminally negligent homicide statute excludes accomplice liability, § 20.00 applies.

## Legal Principles

- Criminally negligent homicide requires a gross deviation from reasonable care based on a failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death.
- Under N.Y. Penal Law § 20.00, derivative liability attaches when a person, acting with the mental culpability required for the offense, intentionally aids another to engage in the conduct constituting the offense.
- “Intentionally aids” in § 20.00 refers to purposeful assistance or participation in the conduct, not an intent that the principal fail to perceive a risk or that a particular result occur.
- Accomplice liability may extend to offenses defined by criminal negligence when the accomplice’s own conduct reflects the same culpable failure to perceive the risk and the accomplice intentionally participates in the underlying course of conduct.

## Conclusion

The court sustained criminally negligent homicide convictions on an acting-in-concert theory, holding that accomplice liability applies even to negligent-result offenses when the alleged accomplice intentionally participates in the conduct and shares the culpable negligence required for the crime.


People v. Flayhart, 72 N.Y.2d 737 (N.Y. 1988)