You and your friend are Busted! You saw everything, but did nothing – are you guilty?

Principal, or Accomplice, and Liability are three aspects of being guilty everyone should know

You and a friend walk into Walmart. The two of you are walking through the store’s video game section and stopping to look at the latest Xbox games. Out of nowhere, your buddy picks up one of the games and hides it under his shirt. You don’t say anything. As the two of you walk out of the store, security grabs you both, searches your friend, and finds the game under his shirt. The police show up, and they arrest your friend for theft. Are you guilty of theft as well? In this scenario, the answer is no. Sure, you were there, watched him take it, and knew he stole it. However, under Florida law, mere proximity to a crime does not make you guilty of committing it. In this case, you are not a thief.

Let’s mix it up a little bit. As you and your friend are looking at the Xbox games, your friend asks you to go to the end of the aisle and keep an eye out for security. You go to the end of the aisle, look around, don’t see security, and give him a thumbs-up. He puts the game under his shirt. As you guys leave, security stops you and finds the game under your friend’s shirt. The police show up, and he gets arrested for theft. What about you? You never touched the game, you didn’t carry it out of the store, and the idea wasn’t yours. It doesn’t matter – you are as guilty as your friend who stole it.

Florida Statute 777.011, Principal in the First Degree, states:

‘Whoever commits any criminal offense against the state, whether felony or misdemeanor, or aids, abets, counsels, hires, or otherwise procures such offense to be committed, and such offense is committed or is attempted to be committed, is a principal in the first degree and may be charged, convicted, and punished as such, whether he or she is or is not actually or constructively present at the commission of such offense.”

In simple terms, this means that if you help in any way to commit the crime, you are as guilty as the person who committed it. There was one big difference in the examples given above: in the second scenario, you acted as a lookout. In that second scenario, you “aided and abetted” or helped your buddy commit a crime. Therefore, you have also committed a crime and will soon find yourself in front of a judge.

We can all wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you find yourself with somebody doing something illegal, make sure you don’t say or do anything that makes you as liable as they are for the crime. If you have a question about “principal liability,” give our office a call, and we’ll discuss it in detail.