What is the test for establishing that a crime was committed by a non-criminal agency?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Smith, F075272 (Cal. App. 2020):
" '[T]he prosecution need not eliminate all inferences tending to show a noncriminal cause of [the harm]. Rather, the foundation may be laid by the introduction of evidence which creates a reasonable inference that the [harm] could have been caused by a criminal agency [citation], even in the presence of an equally plausible noncriminal explanation of the event.' [Citation.]" (People v. Ochoa (1998) 19 Cal.4th 353, 405.)
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