7-21-08 (A-58/59-07)
When a defendant is charged as an accomplice and lesser-included offenses already are charged in an indictment, the trial court comprehensively must charge the jury on the elements both of the lesser-included crimes and of accomplice liability.
Nevertheless, the failure to so separately charge the jury here did not constitute reversible error. The prosecutor did not misstate the applicability of the statutory affirmative defense to felony murder. In these circumstances, it was error for the
trial court to instruct the jury that the defendant’s voluntary absence from the trial could be construed by the jury as evidence of consciousness of guilt, and that error mandates a new trial.
