California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Reyes, H041671 (Cal. App. 2017):
Likewise in People v. Brady (2005) 129 Cal.App.4th 1314, aider and abettor liability was not at issue. The defendant was charged with the deaths of two firefighter pilots who collided in-air while responding to a fire that broke out near the defendant's methamphetamine laboratory. An expert testified that the collision occurred when one of the pilots flew too low and in the wrong direction. (Id. at p. 1322.) The jury found the defendant guilty of recklessly starting a fire that caused the death of the two pilots. (Id. at p. 1323.) On appeal, the defendant challenged the jury instructions on whether his conduct proximately caused the pilots' deaths, given the intervening acts of the low-flying pilot. (Id. at pp. 1318, 1323.) The court determined that the proximate cause instructions as a whole adequately presented the question of "whether the deaths of the two firefighters were reasonably foreseeable consequences of recklessly setting the fire in the woods." (Id. at p. 1329.)
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