Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 29

Heading: Instruction Defining Accomplice

Text: The trial court instructed the jury on the definition of an accomplice in these words: An accomplice is one who was subject to the [ sic ] prosecution for the identical offense charged against the defendant on trial. [¶] To 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 and with the intent or purpose of committing, encouraging, or facilitating the commission of the offense. [¶] ... Merely assenting to or aiding or assisting in the commission of a crime without knowledge of the unlawful purpose of the perpetrator is not criminal, and a person so assenting to or aiding or assisting in the commission of a crime without such knowledge is not an accomplice in the commission of such crime. (65) Defendant contends that these instructions are incomplete because they fail to explain the rule of vicarious criminal liability, under which a person who conspires to commit or aids and abets another in the commission of an offense is guilty not only of that offense but also of any reasonably foreseeable offense committed by a coconspirator or by the person aided and abetted. [20] ( People v. Croy (1985) 41 Cal.3d 1, 12, fn. 5 [221 Cal. Rptr. 592, 710 P.2d 392]; People v. Durham (1969) 70 Cal.2d 171, 181 [74 Cal. Rptr. 262, 449 P.2d 198]; see People v. Rodriguez (1986) 42 Cal.3d 730, 761 [230 Cal. Rptr. 667, 726 P.2d 113].) Under this principle, defendant argues, Myers was an accomplice in the murder of Barnes if the murder was a natural and probable consequence of any illegal activity she intentionally aided. He contends that the failure to instruct on the principle of vicarious liability denied him his rights to jury trial and due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. Defendant did not ask the trial court to instruct on the vicarious liability principle; he maintains the trial court was required to do so sua sponte. A trial court is required to instruct sua sponte only on those general principles of law that are closely and openly connected with the facts before the court and necessary for the jury's understanding of the case. ( People v. St. Martin (1970) 1 Cal.3d 524, 531 [83 Cal. Rptr. 166, 463 P.2d 390].) The question, then, is whether the evidence before the jury plainly would have supported a finding that Myers intentionally aided the commission of an offense of which a crime such as the Barnes murder was a natural and probable consequence. Defendant relies, first, on evidence that Myers assisted the AB by smuggling drugs and knives into state prisons and by carrying messages. This evidence shows, at most, that Myers aided and abetted illegal drug activity and in-prison violence; the killing of an AB defector's relative, outside of prison, is not a natural and probable consequence of such crimes. Defendant also relies on evidence that Myers knew that defendant, a convicted felon, was in possession of a revolver and sawed-off shotgun while he stayed at her house. Assuming without deciding that Myers was guilty of aiding and abetting defendant's illegal weapons possession (see §§ 12020-12021), there was no substantial evidence that Myers knew or should have known that defendant had agreed to commit a murder or was otherwise likely to use the illegally possessed weapons to commit a murder in the near future, and therefore the murder of Barnes was not a natural and probable consequence of permitting him to stay temporarily at her residence with the weapons. Because the evidence before the jury did not plainly support a finding that Myers was vicariously liable for Barnes's murder, the trial court did not err in failing to instruct on the principle of vicarious criminal liability.