Does a jury have to agree unanimously on specific overt acts in order to convict a defendant under a conspiracy theory?

Defendant contends the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury that it had to agree unanimously on specific overt acts in order to find him guilty under a conspiracy theory and by failing to identify the alleged overt acts. We recently rejected these contentions in People v. Russo (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1124, 1135, 108 Cal. Rptr.2d 436, 25 P.3d 641. As we explained, "[disagreement as to who the coconspirators were or who did an overt act, or exactly what that act was, does not invalidate a conspiracy conviction, as long as a unanimous jury is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that a conspirator did commit some overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy." (Ibid.) As conceded by defendant, the trial court properly defined overt acts for the jury. Accordingly, defendant's contention fails.

During the trial, numerous hearsay statements from defendant's alleged coconspirators were admitted into evidence without objection. Because the jury could not consider these statements before making some preliminary findings, defendant contends the trial court erred by omitting CALJIC No. 6.24,¹⁰ which describes the criteria for considering a coconspirator's hearsay statements. "Assuming the court had a sua sponte duty to so instruct the

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jury under these circumstances," the error was harmless. (People v. Sully (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1195, 1231, 283 Cal.Rptr. 144, 812 P.2d 163.) Even if the jury had not considered the few hearsay statements defendant identified, it is not reasonably probable the jury would have reached a different result. (See id. at pp. 1231-1232, 283 Cal. Rptr. 144, 812 P.2d 163.) In any event, the evidence overwhelmingly established that these hearsay statements were made during and in furtherance of a conspiracy to rob, kidnap, and rape the three victims. Accordingly, no prejudicial error occurred.

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e. Failure to Instruct on Target Offenses for Natural and Probable Consequences Rule