Opinion ID: 844263
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Jury Instruction on the Natural and Probable Consequences Doctrine

Text: The trial court instructed the jury with CALJIC No. 3.02 on the liability of an aider and abettor for any other crime committed by the principal that is a natural and probable consequence of the crime originally aided and abetted, and specified the target crime as assault. Gonzales contends the trial court erred in specifying the target crime as assault rather than assault with a deadly weapon, because simple assault cannot as a matter of law support liability for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine. As we conclude below, the trial court did not err. In his summation, the prosecutor argued that Soliz shot Skyles and Price and that Gonzales aided and abetted the shooting. The prosecutor argued Gonzales directly shared Soliz's intention to kill Skyles and Price when Gonzales, who was also armed, exited the car along with Soliz to confront Skyles and Price. While he was explaining the concept of aiding and abetting to the jury, the prosecutor also mentioned the natural and probable consequences doctrine, which he described as follows: [I]f you go out to help somebody commit a crime and you're thinking of a specific crime . . . and you do some act to help that person and you intend to help that person, you know the person is going to commit the crime, you're guilty for not only that specific crime that you have in your head, you're guilty for any other crime that's reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances that that other person might commit. The prosecutor gave as an example armed robbery, because murder is a foreseeable crime for which an aider and abettor to an armed robbery could be liable. Following closing arguments, the trial court gave CALJIC No. 3.02 (1997 rev.): One who aids and abets another in the commission of a crime is not only guilty of that crime, but is also guilty of any other crime committed by a principal which is a natural and probable consequence of the crime originally aided and abetted. [¶] Therefore, you may find the defendant guilty of the crime of murder as charged in Counts 4 and 5, even if he did not intend to commit murder, if you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that: [¶] 1. The crime of assault was committed; [¶] 2. That the defendant aided and abetted that crime; [¶] 3. That a co-principal in that crime committed the crime of murder; and [¶] 4. The crime of murder was a natural and probable consequence of the commission of the crime of assault. [¶] The crime of assault is defined elsewhere in these instructions. The court defined assault (CALJIC No. 9.00) and instructed that assault requires a present ability to commit injury (CALJIC No. 9.01). (16) Relying on People v. Prettyman, supra, 14 Cal.4th 248, Gonzales contends that, as matter of law, murder is not a natural and probable consequence of simple assault unless the assault is committed with a deadly weapon or by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury. In Prettyman, we summarized the natural and probable consequences doctrine as follows: Under California law, a person who aids and abets a confederate in the commission of a criminal act is liable not only for that crime (the target crime), but also for any other offense (nontarget crime) committed by the confederate as a `natural and probable consequence' of the crime originally aided and abetted. To convict a defendant of a nontarget crime as an accomplice under the `natural and probable consequences' doctrine, the jury must find that, with knowledge of the perpetrator's unlawful purpose, and with the intent of committing, encouraging, or facilitating the commission of the target crime, the defendant aided, promoted, encouraged, or instigated the commission of the target crime. The jury must also find that the defendant's confederate committed an offense other than the target crime, and that the nontarget offense perpetrated by the confederate was a `natural and probable consequence' of the target crime that the defendant assisted or encouraged. ( Id. at p. 254.) Prettyman addressed a conflict in the case law concerning whether a trial court was required to identify and define the target offense for the jury or need only describe the target offense generally as some criminal or nefarious conduct intended by the defendant. ( People v. Prettyman, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 266.) We agreed with the line of cases adopting the first of these two alternatives and held that, when the prosecutor relies on the `natural and probable consequences' doctrine, the trial court must identify and describe the target crimes that the defendant might have assisted or encouraged. ( Id. at p. 254.) We reasoned: An instruction identifying target crimes will assist the jury in determining whether the crime charged was a natural and probable consequence of some other criminal act. And an instruction describing the target crimes will eliminate the risk that the jury will engage in uninformed speculation with regard to what types of conduct are criminal. ( Ibid. ) While Prettyman explains when a trial court must identify and describe the target crimes for the natural and probable consequences doctrine, the decision does not directly address what crimes can or cannot provide liability for murder under the doctrine. In that case, the prosecutor's theory was that one of the defendants, Bray, had encouraged the other defendant, Prettyman, to kill the victim with a metal pipe. ( People v. Prettyman, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 255.) The trial court instructed the jury with the natural and probable consequences doctrine but failed to specify the target crime. We observed that instructions identifying and describing the crime of assault with a deadly weapon or by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245) as the appropriate target crime would have assisted the jury in determining whether Bray was guilty of [the victim]'s murder under the `natural and probable consequences' doctrine. ( Id. at p. 267.) In describing the target crime there as a form of aggravated assault, we did not hold that only aggravated assault can provide a predicate for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine. To be sure, we cautioned that a conviction for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine could not be based on `trivial' activities ( id. at p. 269), but nowhere did we suggest that simple assault must be considered trivial for these purposes. (17) Additional authority cited by Gonzales likewise fails to support the proposition that simple assault cannot serve as the target offense. In People v. Gonzales (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 1 [104 Cal.Rptr.2d 247], the defendant was convicted of murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine. ( Id. at p. 5.) The evidence indicated the defendant had aided and abetted a group of men to fight another group, during the course of which a member of the defendant's group, Jimenez, had shot and killed Llamas, one of the men in the other group. ( Id. at pp. 7-8.) The trial court identified the target crime as assault but did not instruct on the elements of the crime. ( Id. at pp. 10-11 & fn. 1.) On appeal, the defendant argued the trial court had a sua sponte duty to instruct that a finding of guilt based on the natural and probable consequences doctrine must depend on his knowing that the shooter, Jimenez, was armed. ( Id. at p. 5.) In effect, the defendant contended his liability for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine had to be based on his intent to aid and abet an assault with a deadly weapon. The Court of Appeal rejected the contention, concluding: The standard instructions given were sufficient to facilitate the jury's determination that under these circumstances, Llamas's murder was a natural and probable consequence of the assault. ( Id. at p. 11.) We likewise reject Gonzales's contention here that, as a matter of law, simple assault cannot serve as the target offense for murder liability under the natural and probable consequences doctrine. [13] Gonzales argues in the alternative that the court, by identifying the target crime as simple assault, in effect allowed the jury to base its verdict on a noncriminal act. The legal basis for the argument is our statement in People v. Prettyman, supra, 14 Cal.4th at page 254, that the reason why a trial court must describe the target offense is to eliminate the risk that the jury will engage in uninformed speculation with regard to what types of conduct are criminal. In this case, however, the argument lacks any factual basis. The evidence supports only the single scenario that Soliz assaulted Skyles and Price with his gun. Although the trial court might properly have identified and described the target crime more specifically as assault with a deadly weapon, its instruction with a general definition of assault encompassed the circumstances of the assault described by the evidence and thus satisfied the requirements of Prettyman.