Concha
People v. Concha
Opinion
Opinion
Mosk, J.
INTRODUCTION
The California Supreme Court held in this case that a defendant who commits an attempted murder may also be liable for first degree murder when his accomplice is killed by the intended victim in the course of the attempted murder. (People v. Concha (2009) 47 Cal.4th 653 [ 101 Cal.Rptr.3d 141 , 218 P.3d 660 ].) But the court concluded that the trial court erred when it failed to instruct the jury that “for a defendant to be found guilty of first degree murder, he personally had to have acted willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation when he committed the attempted murder.” {Id. at p. 666.) The Supreme Court remanded the matter to this court to determine whether that instructional error prejudiced defendants and appellants Reyas Concha and Julio Hernandez with respect to their first degree murder convictions. We conclude that it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt a rational jury would have found each defendant personally premeditated and deliberated the attempted murder, so the instructional error was harmless. We therefore affirm the first degree murder convictions.