The court can find you guilty of an offense in California under two theories. The first is when you act as a principal perpetrator and directly engage in a crime. The other theory is the accomplice liability theory, where you are convicted for aiding, abetting, or encouraging a principal perpetrator to commit a crime. Assisting or encouraging a principal perpetrator attracts the exact penalties as the principal perpetrator, so you should take the charges seriously. Hire an attorney to defend you and explain the charges of aiding and abetting.
Legal Definition of Aiding and Abetting
California PEN 31 is the statute that defines aiding and abetting. The phrase refers to encouraging, assisting, or facilitating another party to commit a crime directly. Many assume encouraging or facilitating an offense is an alternative crime with lesser penalties. However, the truth is that a violation of PEN 31 is not a distinct offense. Instead, it is a legal theory that allows you to face the exact charges as the principal perpetrator, even when you did not directly participate in a crime.
So, when you face charges for PEN 31 violations, you should know everything about aiding and abetting to tell whether you will have a case to answer or the prosecutor’s case will be unsuccessful.
You should know that a PEN 31 violation differs from a conspiracy; the two are separate offenses. Even though the crimes are related, conspiracy is different because the prosecutor needs to prove that you, the co-conspirator, agreed with the crime’s primary perpetrator to engage in the illegal plan. At the same time, under PEN 31, no agreement is required. Anyone concerned with the crime, even if they are not facilitating or encouraging, is liable for a PEN 31 violation.
For instance, when you are the person on the lookout, the one that drives the get-away vehicle or keeps the vehicle engine running, you will be equally liable for committing the crime, regardless of the small role you played.
When on the lookout for the police, you ensure the principal offenders are not arrested by alerting them or giving updates. Even if it seems like a slight responsibility, it is critical to the favorable outcome of the criminal violation, making you an accomplice or active participant. Therefore, when charged under these circumstances, you will have a case to fight, and you must prepare your defenses for a charge reduction or dismissal.
Keeping the engine running during a carjacking or robbery offense also amounts to a PEN 31 violation. The primary perpetrators want the engine to stay running to lower the risk of arrest or recognition by eyewitnesses. By performing this slight role, you reduce the chances of law enforcers arresting the perpetrators, making you part of the perpetrators and equally liable.
The prosecutor will also charge you with a PEN 31 violation when you drive off the vehicle that escapes the crime stage. Your involvement in committing the underlying crime is significant because you make it impossible for the police to arrest the primary perpetrators. Under the circumstances, your actions obstruct law enforcement's pursuit of justice and mean you will answer for aiding and abetting.
You should know that you can face charges for a PEN 31 violation even if you cannot commit the alleged crime before the eyes of the law. For instance, as a woman, you risk face a rape count under PEN 31 when you encourage, support, facilitate, or be on the lookout as a man engages in forcible sexual penetration with another woman. This is even though a woman cannot rape another. Also, when you facilitate another woman to meet in a secluded place with a man you are aware has unlawful plans of rape, you risk a rape count under PEN 31 for facilitating the meeting.
Circumstances that lead to charges under PEN 31 are different, allowing the prosecutor to utilize various techniques to show your involvement in the unlawful plan. The goal is to prove a direct link between your facilitation or promotion of the crime and the baseline offense.
Regardless of your case's circumstances, you need an experienced criminal defense lawyer to poke holes in the prosecutor’s evidence to find the best defenses.
Elements the Prosecutor Must Prove Under PEN 31
For the prosecutor to convict you of a crime for aiding and abetting, they should demonstrate the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
You Knew of the Primary Perpetrator's Illegal Purpose
You are guilty under PEN 31 if the prosecutor demonstrates that you had knowledge of an unlawful plan by the principal perpetrator but did not alert the police. The DA needs to show that you are associated with the perpetrators and were aware of their plans.
For instance, they can prove that you were present in meetings where the alleged crime was planned. They need evidence to support the assertion, including witness testimony, audio recording, or video footage.
Even without concrete proof, the prosecutor can rely on circumstantial evidence to demonstrate this element. They can argue that you were a typical visitor in a location known for criminal activities.
Before the Crime, You Intentionally Facilitated or Encouraged the Primary Principles to Commit It
Another aspect of the violation the prosecutor must demonstrate to secure a guilty verdict is that your actions to support, advise, promote, or encourage the primary perpetrators were intentional. Deliberately encouraging or promoting can happen in many ways. It could be you transported weapons or tools to commit the crime at the scene.
Giving advice or sharing your thoughts or ideas that encourage the commission of the crime also counts as facilitation. Offering financial support to the perpetrators to enable them to accomplish the unlawful plans also amounts to assisting.
Finally, the prosecutor must show that your actions or words instigated or aided the commission of the criminal violation.
Accomplice Charges
Regarding criminal violations, the prosecutor does not charge you directly with the infringement of PEN 31 aiding a crime. Instead, they charge you under the Penal Code outlining the baseline crime but under the accomplice liability theory. The prosecutor relies on the accomplice principle and argues that you engaged in the offense as an aider or abettor. For example, when you help perpetrators commit a carjacking offense, the DA files carjacking charges against you. However, when it comes to the case presentation, they do it under the accomplice liability theory by demonstrating you aided or abetted the crime.
The prosecutor presents their theory to the court, and it is up to the judge to determine if you were an abettor in the case. The elements the court considers to determine if you are an accomplice include:
1. Your Presence at the Crime Scene
The DA demonstrates your accomplice status by finding evidence that puts you where the crime happened. To the court, your presence proves you are an accomplice. So, when you face these charges, you should expect the DA to partner with the investigators to find witnesses that can place you at the scene and evidence like audio recordings or video footage.
The opposing side's goal is to find evidence that shows the court your involvement in the violation, increasing the chances of a conviction.
Even though the prosecutor will vigorously look for evidence that places you at the scene, satisfying the accomplice liability theory is not required. You will face the charges even if you were not physically present. Also, you do not have to participate in the logistics of the crime to be an abettor. All that is needed is to show you intentionally instigated, facilitated, or promoted the crime to be committed. The prosecutor focuses on showing direct or indirect involvement in the violation.
2. Your Companionship with the Primary Perpetrators
When investigations begin into your allegations, the prosecutor focuses more on obtaining proof that shows you knew the principal perpetrators before the crime. Proving this is critical because it helps demonstrate that you planned, facilitated, or encouraged the accomplishment of the criminal violation.
The DA will ask the investigators about your whereabouts before or after the offense. The goal is to corroborate that you knew the perpetrators and establish a possibility that you aided its commission. The court will consider your willingness and ability to support the offenders in determining companionship. If you performed simple tasks or gave updates to the primary offenders and someone could testify, the court will conclude you had companionship with the perpetrators.
3. Your Behavior Before or After the Offense
Your conduct on the days leading up to the crime and after is also considered when determining your complicity.
You should know that these factors are not conclusive. They just help determine whether or not you should face charges as an accomplice.
Having Knowledge of a Crime Does not Make you an Abettor.
Knowing people are committing an offense or planning to execute it does not mean you aided in its commission, even if you do not prevent it or alert the police. Nevertheless, this does not apply to individuals with the legal mandate to prevent or alert the police about the crime. If you have the legal obligation to report and know of an impending offense and not warn the authorities, you will face a PEN 31 violation charge because of breaching your legal duty.
How do you know that you are legally mandated to report a crime? Individuals in particular careers like teachers, lawyers, and doctors are legally obligated to report abuse or criminal activities. If you belong to these professions and fail to report a crime you know of, you will be charged with aiding and abetting.
Additionally, as a parent in California, you are legally obligated to supervise, control, or protect your children reasonably. Therefore, when you fail to prevent or report a crime against your children when you know about it, you risk charges under PEN 31.
PEN 31 Penalties
California statutes do not differentiate between an abettor and a primary principal. Therefore, if the prosecutor proves you were an accomplice in a crime, you will face the exact charges as the primary offenders. Thus, when charged with a PEN 31 violation, you will attract the same penalties as the primary principal for the breach. If you aided in the commission of a robbery, you will face robbery charges and penalties only; your case will be prosecuted under the accomplice theory as the primary perpetrator, except in murder cases.
When you aid someone to commit murder or homicide, you will face more severe charges than the primary perpetrator. The accomplice faces harsher charges because the defenses or mitigating circumstances that apply to the perpetrator do not apply in your case. For instance, two offenders shoot at a victim, and a bullet from one of the guns kills the victim. Under the circumstances, the killer is the primary perpetrator, and the other shooter is the abettor. During prosecution for murder charges, the perpetrator can assert they were acting in self-defense. If there is evidence to support the self-defense assertion, the murder charges will be reduced to voluntary manslaughter.
However, the abettor, who fired at the victim with intent to kill but missed, will face charges for aiding and abetting murder and not voluntary manslaughter because the mitigating circumstances of the first defendant do not apply in their situation. The actual murderer will end up with mild charges and penalties, while the accomplice will face severe murder charges and penalties.
PEN 31 Defenses
A charge under PEN 31 is not entirely hopeless. With the assistance of an experienced defense attorney, you can contest the accomplice liability theory presented by the prosecutor for a favorable outcome. The legal defenses your lawyer can mount include:
You did Not Promote, Facilitate, or Encourage Crime Perpetration
You are not an accomplice if you do not support or assist principal offenders in perpetrating a crime. For instance, you join your friends on a road trip without knowing they plan to steal in a liquor outlet. You stay in the passenger seat, and after driving for a few hours, the driver drives into a parking lot outside a liquor store. The driver and the other occupants alight the vehicle and walk into a store, where they engage in robbery with violence. Even if you are charged with aiding the theft, your attorney can argue that you did not support or facilitate the crime in any way. Besides, you can claim that the actions the prosecutor claims assisted the illegal plan were unintentional.
The Allegations Against you are False
The prosecutor does not require physical proof to charge you with a PC 31 violation. It makes it easy for primary perpetrators to falsely accuse others of assisting in the violation. If you find yourself in the situation, your lawyer can partner with private investigators to uncover the actual events that happened. Also, the lawyer can scrutinize witnesses to find discrepancies in their testimony. Once proof is available that you did not aid the crime, your lawyer can argue that the defendant is acting out of anger or jealousy. That way, the court will drop your charges.
You Withdrew From the Criminal Act Before It Happened
If before the crime that you were involved in planning happened, you communicated your withdrawal from the illegal plan by informing the principal perpetrators of the withdrawal or tried to stop it, you can avoid a conviction.
For instance, you and your friends decide to rob a local store. Your responsibility in the offense is to stay on the lookout and update your friends in case the police or anyone else who could derail the robbery comes. However, before you descend the vehicle outside the store’s parking lot, you change your mind about the crime and tell your friends that you do not wish to go in and rob. You try to talk to your friends about walking into the store, but they disregard you and walk into the store.
On seeing that, you alerted law enforcement and notified them of a robbery in progress. Unfortunately, before the police arrive, your friends succeed in the robbery. If you are apprehended for aiding the crime, you can argue that you withdrew from the plans and tried to prevent the crime by calling law enforcement. Under the circumstances, the court will drop the charges against you.
You were not Legally Obligated to Report or Prevent the Crime
Unless legally obligated, you are not guilty of a PC 31 violation when you fail to alert the police about a crime or prevent it from happening. If the legal duty does not apply in your case, the court will not convict you of a PEN 31 violation.
You Were Acting Under Duress
Under certain circumstances, you can claim that you were forced to facilitate or assist in the commission of a crime through threats of substantial bodily injury or death. However, for the duress defense to work, you should demonstrate that the threat was real or that you reasonably believed the person making the threats would act on them.
Find a Competent Criminal Defense Lawyer Near Me
Charges for a PEN 31 violation are severe because the penalties imposed are the same as those of the principal offenders. With life-changing penalties on the line, you should speak to an experienced attorney immediately. At Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer, we can assist you in crafting defenses against the counts for a favorable verdict. Call us at 310-502-1314 for a free case evaluation.
