California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Montes, 74 Cal.App.4th 1050, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 482 (Cal. App. 1999):
On the other hand, it is rarely, if ever, true that "an aider and abettor can become liable for the commission of a very serious crime committed by the aider and abettor's confederate [where] the target offense contemplated by his aiding and abetting [was] trivial." (People v. Prettyman, supra, 14 Cal.4th at p. 269, 58 Cal.Rptr.2d 827, 926 P.2d 1013, internal quotation marks omitted.) "Murder, for instance, is not the natural and probable consequence of trivial activities. To trigger application of the natural and probable consequences doctrine, there must be a close connection between the target crime aided and abetted and the offense actually committed." (Ibid.)
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