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DANGEROUS INSTRUMENT
"Dangerous instrument" means any instrument, article or substance
which, under the circumstances in which it is used or attempted or
threatened to be used, is capable of causing death or serious physical
injury. [<Insert as appropriate:> It includes
-
a vehicle. "Vehicle"
means a motor vehicle, a snowmobile, any aircraft, or any vessel
equipped for propulsion by mechanical means or sail.
- a dog that has been commanded to attack, except a dog owned by a
law enforcement agency of the state or any political subdivision thereof
or of the federal government when such dog is in the performance of its
duties under the direct supervision, care and control of an assigned law
enforcement officer.]
It is important to note that the article need not be inherently
dangerous; all that is required is that the article was capable of
causing death or serious physical injury under the circumstances in
which it was used. Any article or substance, without limitation and
even though harmless under normal use, may be found by you to be a
dangerous instrument, if under the circumstances of its use or
threatened or attempted use, it is readily capable of producing serious
physical injury or death.
Source: General Statutes § 53a-3 (7) (applies to Penal Code).
Commentary: No injury need to have actually been inflicted.
State
v. Jones, 173 Conn. 91, 95-96 (1977). It is the object's potential
for inflicting injury under the specific circumstances in which it is
used or threatened that makes the object a dangerous instrument.
State v. Schultz, 100 Conn. App. 709, 721, cert. denied, 282 Conn.
926 (2007) (defendant broke a glass against another person's face).
If the conduct of
the defendant involves only a threat to use an object, the threat must
rise to the level of a "true threat." See State v. Cook, 287
Conn. 237, 252 (2008).
The definition refers to the definition of "motor vehicle" in §
14-1 (50), which reads as follows: "Motor vehicle" means any vehicle
propelled or drawn by any nonmuscular power, except aircraft, motor
boats, road rollers, baggage trucks used about railroad stations or
other mass transit facilities, electric battery-operated wheel chairs
when operated by physically handicapped persons at speeds not exceeding
fifteen miles per hour, golf carts operated on highways solely for the
purpose of crossing from one part of the golf course to another,
golf-cart-type vehicles operated on roads or highways on the grounds of
state institutions by state employees, agricultural tractors, farm
implements, such vehicles as run only on rails or tracks, self-propelled
snow plows, snow blowers and lawn mowers, when used for the purposes for
which they were designed and operated at speeds not exceeding four miles
per hour, whether or not the operator rides on or walks behind such
equipment, bicycles with helper motors as defined in section 14-286,
special mobile equipment as defined in subsection (i) of section 14-165,
mini-motorcycle, as defined in section 14-289j, and any other vehicle
not suitable for operation on a highway.
Glossary
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