Opinion ID: 1374541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Accomplice Status as Question of Fact; Sufficiency of Instructions

Text: (12a) The jury was instructed to determine whether or not Klaess, the principal prosecution witness, was an accomplice (CALJIC No. 3.19) and told that if they made such a finding, her testimony should be viewed with distrust (CALJIC No. 3.18) and would have to be corroborated by evidence tending to connect appellant with commission of the offense charged (CALJIC No. 3.12). The instructions correctly stated the consequences of accomplice status. (§ 1111; People v. Gordon (1973) 10 Cal.3d 460, 466, fn. 3 [110 Cal. Rptr. 906, 516 P.2d 298].) The trial court denied, however, appellant's request to remove determination of that status from the jury by instructing that Klaess was an accomplice as a matter of law (CALJIC No. 3.16). Appellant now claims that denial as reversible error. An accomplice is defined as one who is liable to prosecution for the identical offense charged against the defendant on trial (§ 1111), and the jury was so instructed (CALJIC No. 3.10). The parties differ, however on the effect of that definition on establishing accomplice status as a matter of law. The Attorney General's position appears to be that Klaess should have been deemed an accomplice as a matter of law only if the evidence of her participation in the murders was so exclusively onesided and undisputed that if she were charged with the murders along with defendant, a jury could not reasonably acquit her. Appellant, on the other hand, contends that because an accomplice need only be liable to prosecution (§ 1111), Klaess was an accomplice as a matter of law if the record discloses probable cause for her prosecution, i.e., evidence that if believed would support her conviction as principal. (13) It is well settled that the phrase liable to prosecution in section 1111 means, in effect, properly liable. Any issues of fact determinative of the witness's factual guilt of the offense must be submitted to the jury. Only when such facts are clear and undisputed may the court determine that the witness is or is not an accomplice as a matter of law. ( People v. Easley (1983) 34 Cal.3d 858, 874 [196 Cal. Rptr. 309, 671 P.2d 813]; People v. Tewksbury (1976) 15 Cal.3d 953, 960 [127 Cal. Rptr. 135, 544 P.2d 1335]; People v. Hoover (1974) 12 Cal.3d 875, 880 [117 Cal. Rptr. 672, 528 P.2d 760].) The decisions stating that [o]ne is `liable to prosecution' for an offense if it has been committed and there is `probable cause' to believe he has committed it ( People v. Dailey (1960) 179 Cal. App.2d 482, 485 [3 Cal. Rptr. 852], citing People v. Cowan (1940) 38 Cal. App.2d 231, 242 [101 P.2d 125]) are not inconsistent with these principles. In Dailey accomplice status was established by uncontradicted facts (179 Cal. App.2d at pp. 485-486), while in Cowan the uncontradicted evidence showed that the witness was not an accomplice (38 Cal. App.2d at pp. 240, 240-242). The accomplice rule is intended to alleviate distortion stemming from consciousness of guilt, not from fear of unjust prosecution. Self-exculpatory testimony is certainly false if the witness is in fact guilty, but much less likely untruthful if the witness is innocent though falsely accused. And testimony by one not actually guilty is less prone to be `tainted ... [or] given in the hope or expectation of leniency or immunity.' [Citations.] ( Tewksbury, supra, 15 Cal.3d at p. 967; see People v. Howell (1924) 69 Cal. App. 239 [230 P. 991].) Appellant contends that Klaess's accomplice status was established as a matter of law by her testimony that appellant had expressed an intention to kill police officers if necessary to avoid arrest and imprisonment; that she thereafter willingly participated with appellant in armed robberies, kidnappings, and auto thefts during the two days preceding the killing of Officers Freeman and Blecher; that she hated police and was more concerned for herself and appellant than for the wounded officer she observed from the Camaro window; and that she assisted appellant in escaping from the crime scene and disposing of evidence. Appellant claims that these facts are indistinguishable from those held sufficient to sustain a first degree murder conviction in People v. Durham, supra, 70 Cal.2d 171. In Durham, Los Angeles police officers stopped a stolen Thunderbird at 4 a.m. Durham was driving the Thunderbird and Robinson was the passenger. Durham got out and talked with the officers. Robinson was ordered out and, on emerging, pulled a handgun. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, one officer was fatally wounded and Robinson was hit. The other officer then turned his attention to Durham and ordered him not to move. Durham obeyed, except that at one point he started to lower his hands, was told to keep them raised, and did so. At the time, Durham and Robinson were both felony parole violators from Ohio; they had committed armed robberies in Ohio and Nebraska within the preceding 11 days; and Robinson had fired his gun during the escape from the second robbery. The Thunderbird had been stolen in San Francisco. This court concluded that from the foregoing evidence the jury could reasonably infer that Durham and Robinson had been engaged in a joint expedition to commit robberies and forcibly resist arrest, and that at the time of the traffic stop in Los Angeles, Durham knew he was driving a stolen vehicle, and knew that Robinson had used his gun in the prior robberies and was then armed. It was held that with these inferences the evidence was sufficient to sustain Durham's conviction for first degree murder as an aider and abettor under the following principles quoted from People v. Villa (1957) 156 Cal. App.2d 128, 133-134 [318 P.2d 828]: `To be an abettor the accused must have instigated or advised the commission of the crime or been present for the purpose of assisting in its commission. He must share the criminal intent with which the crime was committed.... [W]hile mere presence alone at the scene of the crime is not sufficient to make the accused a participant, and while he is not necessarily guilty if he does not attempt to prevent the crime through fear, such factors may be circumstances that can be considered by the jury with the other evidence in passing on his guilt or innocence. One may aid or abet in the commission of a crime without having previously entered into a conspiracy to commit it. [Citations.] Moreover, the aider and abettor in a proper case is not only guilty of the particular crime that to his knowledge his confederates are contemplating committing, but he is also liable for the natural and reasonable or probable consequences of any act that he knowingly aided or encouraged. Whether the act committed was the natural and probable consequence of the act encouraged and the extent of defendant's knowledge are questions of fact for the jury. [Citations.]' (Italics added.) ( Durham, supra, 70 Cal.2d at p. 181; but cf., People v. Beeman (1984) 35 Cal.3d 547, 560 [199 Cal. Rptr. 60, 674 P.2d 1318].) (12b) It does not follow from Durham that Klaess was an accomplice as a matter of law. Though appellant had declared he would kill police if necessary to escape arrest, Klaess testified she did not take those statements seriously. She admittedly hated police herself, but appellant testified he had never heard her threaten to kill them. Thus the jury was not required to infer that she shared with appellant an intent to resist arrest at the risk of killing the arresting officers. Nor did her mere presence and inaction at the crime scene ( People v. Strickland (1974) 11 Cal.3d 946, 958 [114 Cal. Rptr. 632, 523 P.2d 672]; Pinell v. Superior Court (1965) 232 Cal. App.2d 284, 287 [42 Cal. Rptr. 676]) or assistance in defendant's escape ( Hoover, supra, 12 Cal.3d at p. 879) establish conclusively that she was liable as a principal and was thus an accomplice. Appellant complains, however, that there were gaps in the jury instructions on accomplice status that prevented the jury from making a proper finding that Klaess was an accomplice. Specifically, appellant contends that the trial court on its own motion should have instructed on the principles of vicarious liability as stated in the final (optional) paragraph of CALJIC No. 3.00: One who aids and abets is not only guilty of the particular crime that to his knowledge his confederates are contemplating committing, but he is also liable for the natural and reasonable or probable consequences of any act that he knowingly aided or encouraged. Appellant also cites CALJIC No. 6.11, which states that a conspirator is responsible for an act of a fellow conspirator that is a natural and probable consequence of the object of the conspiracy. The only purpose advanced by appellant for giving such an instruction would be to provide a legal basis for a conclusion by the jury that Klaess was an accomplice under a Durham theory, i.e., that a natural and reasonable, or probable, consequence of her riding with appellant from Crockett to West Sacramento in the stolen Camaro was that appellant would resist with deadly force if stopped by law enforcement officers. That theory could apply only if the jury found that appellant was present at the time and place of the crime and personally fired a gun at the officers. Those findings, however, would undercut the benefits to appellant from labeling Klaess an accomplice. Thus, the findings would render pointless any corroboration tending to connect appellant with commission of the crimes (§ 1111) and would eliminate any doubt of the truth of Klaess's testimony that appellant personally shot at the officers. Moreover, the proposed instruction would be superfluous if the jury concluded that Klaess had personally participated in the shooting since she would then be an aider and abettor under CALJIC No. 3.10, through which the jury was told that [t]o be an accomplice, the person must have aided, promoted, encouraged, or instigated by act or advice the commission of such offense with knowledge of the unlawful purpose of the person who committed the offense. [5] Thus, the only way the jury could have (1) found accomplice status under the proposed instruction on responsibility for natural and probable consequences of any act knowingly aided or encouraged and (2) not found accomplice status under the instructions that actually were given, would have been to conclude that appellant personally shot and killed the officers as charged. Accordingly, the absence of the proposed instruction could not have substantially prejudiced him.