69 results for 'court:"Colorado Supreme Court"'.
J. Gabriel finds that the district court improperly classified defendant's first-degree murder charge as a capital offense and denied his request for bail. The charge was filed after the enactment of legislation abolishing the death penalty, and the term "capital offenses" refers to crimes punishable by death, so the application of the capital offense exception to the constitutional right to bail was error. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Gabriel, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 23SA2, Categories: Death Penalty, Murder, Bail
J. Boatright finds that the trial court properly admitted hearsay statements that a child made about alleged unlawful sexual behavior because the child was under 18 when she made them. Also, the appeals court correctly determined that for the crime of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, the child hearsay statute applies to any victim under the age of 18. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Boatright, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21SC340, Categories: Confrontation, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Marquez finds that the trial court violated defendant's constitutional right to present a defense by refusing to allow a nonparty alternate suspect to be questioned in the presence of the jury hearing her burglary case. The trial court should have held a hearing outside the jury's presence before refusing defendant's request. Overturning its previous decision in Dikeman, the court holds that a defendant may question a nonparty alternate suspect in front of a jury even if the nonparty intends to assert the Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. First, a trial court must decide if a non-speculative connection exists between the nonparty alternate suspect and the subject crime, whether the nonparty has a valid Fifth Amendment claim and, if so, what limits should be placed on courtroom questioning to avoid drama. Reversed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Marquez, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21SC458, Categories: Burglary, Criminal Procedure, Dna
J. Boatright finds that the trial court properly admitted video of a forensic interview of a victim under the child hearsay statute. For the crime of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, the child hearsay statute applies to any victim under the age of 18. But the trial court must revisit the imposition of concurrent sentences since the offenses did not involve the same supporting evidence. Reversed in part.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Boatright, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21SC325, Categories: Confrontation, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Hood finds that the trial court properly suppressed defendant's confession to killing a man because the state failed to prove he had voluntarily waived his Miranda rights. Detectives befriended defendant, a homeless teenager, before making affirmative misrepresentations that he would walk out of the police station that day and that the Miranda warning was just a formality, which, combined with the timing of the misrepresentations, made his waiver involuntary. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Hood, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 22SA350, Categories: Miranda, Murder
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J. Gabriel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of both harassment and stalking. The appeals court erred in concluding that an offense is included in another offense on the basis of a single distinction test. An offense is included in another offense only if it resulted in a less serious injury, lesser culpability or both, and there are no other distinctions. Harassment is not an included offense of stalking because the two crimes are distinct in several ways, so the appeals court conclusion that a single distinction test. Also, the determination of whether the crimes included an act of domestic violence was properly decided by the trial court, as the Sixth Amendment does not entitle a defendant to a jury determination for findings that do not result in a penalty. Reversed in part.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Gabriel, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21SC796, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Domestic Violence
J. Hart finds that the trial court properly dismissed a fisher's quiet title and declaratory relief claims to the riverbed of the Arkansas River for lack of standing. Both claims would require him to assert his own legally protected interest in the riverbed, but he instead relied on proof that the state owns the riverbed. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Hart, Filed On: June 5, 2023, Case #: 22SC119, Categories: Environment, Property, Water
J. Hood finds that defendant was not entitled to provide the jury trying his attempted extreme indifference murder case with a definition of universal malice. "Universal malice" is not a technical term, as a reasonable person of common intelligence would know that, as it applies to a homicide, it means "a willingness to take life indiscriminately." Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Hood, Filed On: June 5, 2023, Case #: 21SC564, Categories: Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Berkenkotter finds that the trial court properly required a hospital to release defendant's medical records narrowly related to her alleged intoxication after she invoked the involuntary intoxication defense to a DUI charge. A DUI defendant waives the physician-patient privilege to medical records by endorsing the affirmative defense of involuntary intoxication.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Berkenkotter, Filed On: June 5, 2023, Case #: 22SA874, Categories: Evidence, Search, Dui