What is the test for a defendant to be held responsible for a crime as a direct perpetrator or as an aider and abettor?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Berry-Vierwinden, D059670 (Cal. App. 2012):

A defendant may be culpable for a crime as a direct perpetrator or as an aider and abettor. To be culpable as an aider and abettor, the defendant must have acted with knowledge of the criminal purpose of the perpetrator and with an intent or purpose either of committing, or of encouraging or facilitating commission of, the offense. (People v. McCoy (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1111, 1118.) The aider and abettor is liable for (1) the offense committed by the perpetrator that was intended by the aider and abettor (the target offense), and (2) other offenses committed by the perpetrator that were not intended by the aider and abettor but that were the natural and probable consequence of the intended offense. (People v. McCoy, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1117; People v. Prettyman (1996) 14 Cal.4th 248, 260-261.)

With respect to the target offense intended by the aider and abettor, the aider and abettor's mens rea is the intent associated with the target offense. (People v. McCoy, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1118 & fn. 1.) In some circumstances the aider and abettor may be found guilty of a target offense that is greater or lesser than the offense attributed to the perpetrator, depending on the particular states of mind of the aider and abettor and the

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