The state accuses the defendant of having committed the offense of injury to a child by omission.

Relevant Statutes

A person commits the offense of injury to a child by omission if the person intentionally or knowingly by omission causes serious bodily injury to a child.

A person’s omission that causes serious bodily injury to a child may constitute an offense only if the person is the parent of the child and the omission violates a duty the person has as a parent.

The parent of a child has the statutory duty—

1. of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child; and
2. to support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food, shelter, medical and dental care, and education.

Definitions

Bodily Injury

“Bodily injury” means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition.

Parent

[Include relevant portions of the following definition.]

“Parent” means the mother, a man presumed to be the father, a man legally determined to be the father, a man who has been adjudicated to be the father by a court of competent jurisdiction, a man who has acknowledged his paternity under applicable law, or an adoptive mother or father. The term does not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship has been terminated.

Serious Bodily Injury

“Serious bodily injury” means injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.

Intentionally Causing Serious Bodily Injury

A person intentionally causes serious bodily injury to a child if the person has the conscious objective or desire to cause that serious bodily injury to the child.

Knowingly Causing Serious Bodily Injury

A person knowingly causes serious bodily injury to a child if the person is aware that his conduct is reasonably certain to cause that serious bodily injury to the child.

Application of Law to Facts

You must determine whether the state has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, five elements. The elements are that—

1. the defendant—
   1. had a duty as a parent to provide medical care to [name]; and
   2. failed to provide such medical care;
2. the defendant, in [county] County, Texas, on or about [date], by this failure to provide medical care caused bodily injury to [name];
3. [name] was a child fourteen years old or younger;
4. the bodily injury caused was serious bodily injury; and
5. the defendant—
   1. intended to cause serious bodily injury to [name]; or
   2. knew he would cause serious bodily injury to [name].

You must all agree on elements 1 through 5 listed above, but you do not have to agree on the culpable mental states listed in elements 5.a and 5.b above.

If you all agree the state has failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, one or more of elements 1 through 5 listed above, you must find the defendant “not guilty.”

If you all agree the state has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the five elements listed above, you must find the defendant “guilty.”

[Insert any other instructions raised by the evidence. Then continue with the verdict form found in CPJC 2.1, the general charge.]