When Can You Be Charged with Conspiracy in California?

A prosecutor must prove three elements

When Can You Be Charged with Conspiracy in California?

It may seem strange, but there are times in the criminal justice system that you can be charged with a crime…just for planning to break the law (and doing a little something more). Even if you don’t actually commit the underlying crime — such as arson — you might still be charged with the crime of conspiracy.

So what exactly is conspiracy — and when can it be charged? In California, a prosecutor can charge conspiracy when three things occur:

  • One or more people agree to commit a crime;
  • One of the people who agreed to commit a crime took an overt act to further or advance the agreement; and
  • The overt act was committed in California.

Essentially, if you agree with someone to commit a crime and either you or the other person do something towards making that crime happen (no matter how small), you could be charged with the crime of conspiracy. As a criminal defense attorney Riverside, CA can explain, you could be charged with conspiracy to commit any number of California criminal offenses.

For example, consider a situation where you are talking with your coworker about how angry you are about your low pay at work. You decide together that you will rob your boss that weekend, stealing his valuable construction equipment and tools. The next day, you buy a bolt cutter to cut the padlock on the door to the warehouse where you work. Your coworker confesses your plan to a friend, who calls the police — and you are both charged with conspiracy. In this case, you both agreed to commit the crime of burglary. You took an overt act by buying the bolt cutters — and you bought the bolt cutters in California.

An overt act must have occurred after the agreement to commit the crime has been made, and must be done on top of the agreement to commit the crime. It does not have to be a criminal act, and often is not. For example, if you rent a car in order to drive your co-conspirator to a robbery, that could be an overt act.

Conspiracy cases can be complicated, and often require the advice of an experienced criminal defense attorney Riverside, CA. For example, if you don’t have a common purpose with your alleged co-conspirators, then you cannot be guilty of the crime on conspiracy. In the coworker example above, if you planned to vandalize the warehouse while your coworker wanted to rob from your boss, then you didn’t have a “meeting of the minds,” and there could be no conspiracy. Importantly, however, you don’t have to know all of the members of the conspiracy to be charged with this crime. If you agreed to sell drugs and there are many other people selling drugs as part of the same conspiracy, then it doesn’t matter that you don’t know each other — as long as you personally agreed with someone to sell drugs.

If you have been charged with conspiracy or another California crime, the legal professionals of the Chambers Law Firm can help. Contact us today at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com to schedule a free initial consultation with a criminal defense attorney Riverside, CA.

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