Court Opinion

ID: 9722060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:16:02.352702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:30.395779
License: Public Domain

SCOTT, J.
I dissent from the reversal of the conviction of Bonnie Sue Yarber.
The lead opinion appears to hold that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, intent to aid and abet may be inferred from a person’s action with knowledge of the purpose of the perpetrator of a crime. But where a contrary inference is reasonable, his knowledge of the perpetrator’s purpose will not suffice and intent must be proved by other evidence.
However, the facts of this particular case indicate that a contrary inference is not reasonable and that a shared criminal intent is undisputably indicated. Pornographic movies had been shown to the minors in appellants’ bedroom with both Bonnie Sue and Wendol present. There was testimony that on June 14, Bonnie Sue had asked Mary S. to orally copulate Wendol. (While Bonnie Sue cannot be convicted of the violation that occurred on June 17 based solely on what she did on June 14, her activities on June 14 are probative of her desires and intent on June 17.) Mary S. also testified that Bonnie Sue “asked me to eat her out while she gives Wendol a blow job.” Such evidence indicates that Bonnie Sue wanted the children to be participants and not mere observers of her sexual activities with Wendol. The evidence indicates that Bonnie Sue knew that acts of oral copulation with the minors had taken place in her apartment previous to June 17. Nevertheless, she engaged in oral copulation with Wendol in the presence of the children, she was present at the time the charged oral copulation with the children took place, and she did nothing to prevent it. The entire behavior of Bonnie Sue and Wendol indicates that they were acting as a unit (see People v. Rios (1954) *918127 Cal.App.2d 620, 622 [274 P.2d 163]) up to and including June 17, in their attempts to involve the children in their sexual activity.
Failure to instruct the juiy, as suggested by the lead opinion, was not error. I would affirm the conviction. *
I concur with the affirmation of the conviction of Wendol Yarber and the remand as ordered.
A petition for a rehearing was denied April 20, 1979, Scott, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied May 17, 1979. Richardson, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted in No. 16836.

The aiding and abetting issue upon which the lead opinion bases its reversal was not raised by the State Public Defender in his briefs on behalf of appellant Bonnie Sue. The issue was first suggested by the court at oral argument, then briefed by the parties. Since the advent of the State Public Defender’s office, it is our experience that they have left no legal stones unturned or shied away from any possible theory of error in the discharge of their obligation to defendants. The error upon which the majority has seized to reverse this conviction was not raised by the public defender simply because the error does not exist.