Is an accessory to a crime defined as a principal or a principal?

a principal to include a person who aids and abets the commission of a crime.⁴¹ Section 32 defines an accessory to a crime as one who, after a felony has been committed, assists a principal in the felony with the intent to help the principal avoid arrest or conviction.⁴² Thus, under these statutory definitions, "[a] defendant in a criminal action... is convicted as a principal or accessory or not at all." (People v. Talbott (1944) 65 Cal.App.2d 654, 660.) Yet a defendant who is guilty of an offense by way of the natural and probable consequences doctrine is clearly not an accessory to the offense his or her guilt is not predicated on acts perpetrated after the felony was committed. Rather, the defendant who is an aider and abettor remains just that, an aider and abettor (that is, a "principal"). The doctrine simply extends the scope of criminal liability to include all crimes committed by the direct perpetrator that are the natural and probable consequence of the target crime.