Court Opinion

ID: 9633650
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:55:35.79804+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:39.356508
License: Public Domain

McFarland, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part: I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that it was reversible error for the district court to instruct the jury that the defendant could be guilty of the crime of impairing a security interest whether he acted as an individual or as a corporate officer when he failed to account to Yamaha for the proceeds of the sales. The majority correctly states that:
“Where a crime that may be committed by several different methods has been alleged in the complaint to have been committed by one of the methods specified by the statute, the trial judge is required to instruct the jury on the method as alleged by the State.”
However, it is my belief that the majority has incorrectly applied *398this statement of the law to the case at hand. A criminal statute such as that defining theft (K.S.A. 1986 Supp. 21-3701) has combined the previously separate crimes of larceny, embezzlement, and possession of stolen property into one offense that may be committed by the different means or methods set forth by statute. In each, the criminal acts necessary to complete the crime are quite different. Should the State, in essence, charge embezzlement as the method of theft and then seek instructions on both embezzlement and possession of stolen property, the majority’s statement of law herein cited would be applicable.
In the case before us, different methods or means of committing the crime are not involved — only the capacity in which the defendant acted when doing the prohibited conduct of failing to account to the secured party is of import. In my opinion the matter should be handled in the same manner as is a principal versus aider and abettor situation.
In State v. Smolin, 221 Kan. 149, 557 P.2d 1241 (1976), we stated:
“Defendant first challenges her conviction because she was charged with aggravated battery but tried as having aided and abetted the principal, presumably Robert Berkowitz. She claims this practice failed to apprise her of the evidence she would be required to meet at trial and was prejudicial.
“By statute and case law this jurisdiction has long held that any person who counsels, aids or abets in the commission of any offense may be charged, tried and convicted in the same manner as if he were a principal. (K.S.A. 21-3205; State v. Jackson, 218 Kan. 491, 543 P.2d 901; State v. Williams & Reynolds, 217 Kan. 400, 536 P.2d 1395; State v. Ingram, 211 Kan. 587, 506 P.2d 1148; State v. Campbell, 210 Kan. 265, 500 P.2d 21; State v. Ogden, 210 Kan. 510, 502 P.2d 654; State v. Edwards, 209 Kan. 681, 498 P.2d 48; State v. Ridge, 208 Kan. 236, 491 P.2d 900; State v. Sharp, 202 Kan. 644, 451 P.2d 137; State v. Jackson, 201 Kan. 795, 443 P.2d 279, cert. denied, 394 U.S. 908, 22 L. Ed. 2d 219, 89 S. Ct. 1019.) Moreover, defendant’s argument that she should have been charged in the information with aiding and abetting the aggravated battery rather than with the substantive offense has been rejected by this court. (State v. Motor, 220 Kan. 99, 102, 551 P.2d 783; State v. Curtis, 217 Kan. 717, 723, 538 P.2d 1383; State v. Turner, 193 Kan. 189, 392 P.2d 863.)” 221 Kan. at 152.
Likewise, in State v. Pierson, 222 Kan. 498, 565 P.2d 270, cert. denied 434 U.S. 868 (1977), we stated:
“The defendant’s third point on the appeal is that the trial court erred in failing to discharge defendant because there was a variance in the proof. The defendant maintains that the state elected to proceed against defendant in the *399information on the basis that he was a principal offender, while the evidence presented at the trial showed that the defendant was at most only an aider and abettor since he was not present at the time either of the robberies occurred. The defendant concludes that his conviction as an aider and abettor constituted a variance from the charge contained in the information and therefore his conviction should be set aside. This issue has been raised before this court on many occasions, most recently in State v. Smolin, 221 Kan. 149, 557 P.2d 1241, where we held that one who counsels, aids, or abets in the commission of any offense may be charged, tried, and convicted in the same manner as if he were a principal. We find no error in the refusal of the trial court to discharge the defendant because of a claimed variance in the proof.” 222 Kan. at 503.
In State v. Goering, 225 Kan. 755, 594 P.2d 194 (1979), again, the defendant was charged as a principal and the elements instruction given as for a principal. The aiding and abetting instruction was also given. We held:
“Defendant next contends that the trial court erred in instructing the jury on aiding and abetting, since the defendant was charged only as a principal. . . .”
“We determined this issue adversely to appellant’s contention in State v. Smolin, 221 Kan. 149, 557 P.2d 1241 (1976). We said:
“ ‘By statute and case law this jurisdiction has long held that any person who counsels, aids or abets in the commission of any offense may be charged, tried and convicted in the same manner as if he were a principal. . . . Moreover, defendant’s argument that she should have been charged in the information with aiding and abetting the aggravated battery rather than with the substantive offense has been rejected by this court.’ (p. 152.)
“In the case at hand, the defendant was properly charged as a principal, the evidence was sufficient to justify the instructions given, and the court properly instructed the jury on aiding and abetting.” 225 Kan. at 758-59.
K.S.A. 21-3205(1) provides:
“A person is criminally responsible for a crime committed by another if he intentionally aids, abets, advises, hires, counsels or procures the other to commit the crime.”
K.S.A. 21-3207(1) provides:
“An individual who performs criminal acts, or causes such acts to be performed, in the name of or on behalf of a corporation is legally responsible to the same extent as if such acts were in his own name or on his own behalf.”
K.S.A. 21-3206 (the only statute separating these two statutes in the statute book) provides for corporate criminal liability for acts committed by its agents when acting within the scope of their authority.
*400I see absolutely no reason to treat K.S.A. 21-3207 differently than K.S.A. 21-3205.
The majority opinion states:
“The instruction allowed the jury to find Jones guilty of impairing a security agreement and intentionally failing to account for the proceeds of the sale to Yamaha either (1) as an individual acting on behalf of JoCo Motors, Inc., or (2) as an individual.”
How is this any different than being charged as a principal with an elements instruction based on being a principal and then instructing on aiding and abetting? The State is never required to elect between these theories. If there is evidence defendant acted as a principal and as an aider and abettor, the jury may convict without ever stating on which theory it found guilt.
As far as creating any problems for the defense in knowing what to defend against, the aiding and abetting situation creates many more problems. Let us assume that in an aggravated robbery case two masked men enter a home at gunpoint and rob the family residing there. The State proceeds on the theory defendant was one of the two principals (the robbers entering the home). Defendant prepares an alibi defense that he was 100 miles away at the time the crime was committed. At trial, a codefendant who has pled guilty testifies defendant was not one-of the two actual robbers, but was the mastermind who planned the robbery, secured the guns used, and gave the robbers the layout of the home and the location of the valuables taken. Clearly, the defendant could be convicted whether the jury believed he was a principal or an aider and abettor.
In the case before us no such situation arises. Defendant is being charged with his own particular acts of failing to account — what hat he was wearing (corporate or personal) is the only area where K.S.A. 21-3207 comes into play and it nullifies any distinction. As the majority opinion correctly notes:
“The purpose of the complaint is twofold: (1) to disclose sufficient factual information to enable a magistrate to make an intelligent and impartial finding that there is probable cause to believe that a specific crime has been committed by the defendant and (2) to inform the defendant of the particular offense alleged to have been committed. Here, the complaint charging Jones contains the elements of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises Jones of what he must be prepared to meet. What was not included in the complaint was the theory of Jones’ individual responsibility for the corporate crime.
“When a complaint charges a crime but fails to specify the particulars for *401which the individual is responsible sufficiently to enable the defendant to prepare a defense, the court may, on written motion of the defendant, require the prosecuting attorney to furnish the defendant with a bill of particulars. At the trial, the State’s evidence shall be confined to the particulars of the bill. K.S.A. 1986 Supp. 22-3201(5). Defenses and objections based on defects in the institution of the prosecution or in the complaint other than that it fails to show jurisdiction in the court or to charge a crime may be raised only by motion before trial. K.S.A. 22-3208.
“The record reflects that Jones was well aware of the theory of criminal responsibility upon which the State would rely at trial. Further, the record shows that he was neither surprised at trial nor deprived of his right to defend himself against that theory. At the hearing on the motion to dismiss, approximately two months prior to trial, the trial court clarified that the case would proceed on the theory of Jones’ individual responsibility for corporate crime, K.S.A. 21-3207, and ruled that despite the lack of reference to K.S.A. 21-3207 in the complaint, defendant had received ample notice of the manner in which he was being charged through the briefs and record filed with the motion to dismiss. We agree.”
I would treat K.S.A. 21-3207 in the same manner as the aiding and abetting concept is handled and affirm the conviction.