Photo: T. Scott Carlisle

Even if a person didn’t commit the actual crime, a person in Utah who helped the person commit the crime can be charged with aiding and abetting, or being an accessory to a crime.  Utah’s statute requires that the aiding person have the “mental state required for the commission of an offense,” meaning that a person actually had to know that they were helping to commit the crime.  For example, if a stranger asks you to hand them a baseball bat that is lying on the floor, and then the stranger attacks a bystander, you probably would not be liable for aiding the stranger because you didn’t know that the stranger was going to attack anyone with it.

The statute is also applicable if you solicit, request, command, encourage, or intentionally aid someone to commit a crime.

This is not an accomplice, which means that a person actually committed the crime with another person rather than just aiding.

Utah Code 76-2-202: Criminal responsibility for direct commission of offense or for conduct of another.
Every person, acting with the mental state required for the commission of an offense who directly commits the offense, who solicits, requests, commands, encourages, or intentionally aids another person to engage in conduct which constitutes an offense shall be criminally liable as a party for such conduct.