“Aiding and Abetting” vs “Accessory to a Crime” in Colorado

Aiding and abetting is helping someone commit a crime in Colorado. It carries the same penalties as actually committing the crime.

By contrast, being an accessory to a crime is assisting people who already committed a crime, such as hiding them from the police. Being an accessory carries less harsh penalties than actually committing the crime.

Keep reading for a more thorough discussion on aiding/abetting and accessory laws.

What is Aiding and Abetting in Colorado?

In Colorado, aiding and abetting the commission of a crime makes you an “accomplice.” Examples are:

• driving a bank robber to the bank,
• distracting a store cashier so a shoplifter can steal undetected, or
• disabling a surveillance camera so a burglar can enter a home without being recorded.

Penalties and Defenses

As an accomplice, you face the same criminal charges as “principals” – the people who physically executed the underlying crime. However, in practice, courts tend to impose lesser punishments on accomplices.

Your mere presence at the scene of the crime does not automatically make you an accomplice. The most effective way to fight accomplice charges is to show you terminated your effort to help commit the crime, and you either:

• warned the police, or
• warned the victim.¹

What is an Accessory after the Fact in Colorado?

You are an accessory in Colorado if you assist a person who has already committed a crime – or who is suspected of having committed a crime. You also must have had the intent to prevent or hinder the suspect from being arrested, prosecuted, convicted, or punished.

Example: Paul tells his friend Jack that he killed a person, and the police are on his tail. Jack agrees to let Paul hide out in his basement. Here, Jack is an accessory to Paul because he is assisting Paul by harboring and concealing him from the police.

Other examples of being an accessory are:

• warning a suspect that law enforcement officers are near;
• giving money, weapons, or transportation to a suspect;
• deceiving the police to throw them off the scent of a suspect;
• destroying physical or testimonial evidence of a crime; or
• the performance of any act in an attempt to help a suspected criminal to escape justice.

Penalties and Defenses

As the following table shows, the punishment for being an accessory depends on the circumstances of the case:

Facts of the Case	Colorado Accessory Penalties
The other person has been convicted of – or charged with – a class 1 felony or class 2 felony.	Class 4 felony:  2 to 6 years in prison (with 3 years mandatory parole) and/or $2,000 to $500,000.
The other person is suspected of committing a class 1 felony or class 2 felony, but has not been charged.	Class 5 felony:  1 to 3 years in prison (with 2 years mandatory parole) and/or $1,000 to $100,000.
The other person has been charged with – or is suspected of – a class 3 felony, class 4 felony, or class 5 felony.	Class 5 felony:  1 to 3 years in prison (with 2 years mandatory parole) and/or $1,000 to $100,000.
The other person has been charged with – or is suspected of – a class 6 felony.	Class 6 felony:  1 to 1 ½ years in prison (with a year mandatory parole) and/or $1,000 to $100,000.
The other person has been charged with – or is suspected of – a misdemeanor.	Petty offense:  Up to 10 days in jail and/or up to $300.

In short, accessories to a person who committed a felony are felons. Accessories to a person who committed a misdemeanor face only petty offense charges.

A common defense to accessory charges is that you did not realize the other person was a criminal suspect. In other words, you lacked the required “mental state” and “specific intent” to help the principal escape justice.²

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• To Aid, Abet, Counsel, Command, Induce, or Procure the Commission of an Offense: A Critique to Federal Aiding and Abetting Principles – South Carolina Law Review.
• Criminal Law – Accomplice Liability – A Defendant Who Intents to Aid, Abet, Counsel, or Procure the Commission of a Crime, Is Liable for That Crime as well as the Natural and Probably Consequences of that Crime – People v. Robinson  – University of Detroit Mercy Law Review.
• Reassessing the Theoretical Underpinnings of Accomplice Liability: New Solutions to an Old Problem – Hastings Law Journal.
• Accomplice Liability for Unintentional Crimes: Remaining within the Constraints of Intent – Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.
• Causing, Aiding, and the Superfluity of Accomplice Liability – University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

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Legal References