Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an “undetermined” cause of death from a county coroner does not preclude prosecutors from presenting their own evidence that the death was actually a homicide.

In the case before the Court of Appeals, Denver jurors convicted Robert W. Feldman in 2022 of murdering his wife, Stacy Feldman. He is serving a life sentence in prison.

According to the evidence, Robert Feldman found Stacy Feldman unconscious in the bathtub with the shower running, and he unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate her before first responders arrived. Two forensic pathologists with the Denver medical examiner’s office, in consultation with the chief medical examiner, ultimately certified the cause and manner of death as “undetermined.”

After discovering Robert Feldman may have had a motive to kill his wife because she just learned he was having an affair, law enforcement consulted with an expert. Although he was not a forensic pathologist, the doctor had autopsy experience and strangulation expertise. He testified that he believed Stacy Feldman died “from a combination of strangulation and suffocation.”

On appeal, Feldman argued the state’s constitution and laws give coroners the “exclusive discretion” to determine a person’s cause and manner of death. Denver’s medical examiner, therefore, could not “delegate” that power to the district attorney’s office for its own expert to make such a determination.

“Is it your argument,” asked Judge Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov during arguments to a three-judge appellate panel, “that once the coroner makes that determination, no expert on behalf of a prosecutor could contradict that at a later date, based on that expert’s further review of the evidence?”

That is correct, responded defense attorney Jeffrey S. Pagliuca, but “I will go further than that.”

“You can’t bring a prosecution for murder where there is no cause of death determination by the coroner,” he said. “Under Colorado law, that has to be decided by the office of the coroner.”

“Is it correct, then, that the implication of what you’re saying is that when a coroner determines a cause of death is undetermined, nobody can ever be prosecuted?” pressed Judge Daniel M. Taubman.

Not unless law enforcement can provide new facts or evidence that would persuade the coroner to change his or her mind, Pagliuca replied.

The Court of Appeals panel rejected the invititation to recognize a broad authority for coroners to block criminal charges. It noted Feldman’s theory — that one executive branch agency cannot delegate a function to another agency — has not been endorsed by Colorado’s courts. Moreover, the Denver medical examiner’s office did not delegate to anyone its responsibility to determine the cause and manner of death.

“The coroner and forensic pathologist performed their duties to conduct a forensic autopsy, determine the cause and manner of death, and issue a death certificate,” wrote Taubman, a retired judge who sat on the panel at the chief justice’s assignment, in the Nov. 7 opinion.

“The performance of those duties in no way precluded the prosecution from presenting other evidence regarding the cause and manner of the victim’s death in a subsequent criminal proceeding, even if it conflicted with the coroner’s determination,” he continued.

The case is People v. Feldman.