Colorado’s second-highest court determined last week that a Mesa County judge incorrectly reduced a defendant’s menacing charge from a felony to a misdemeanor after finding his hatchet did not meet the definition of “knife.”

A person commits menacing as a misdemeanor if they use threats or physical actions to place another person in fear of serious injury. It becomes a felony based on the type of object used. In 2021, the legislature changed the requirement that a person use a “deadly weapon” to the requirement that someone use a “firearm, knife, or bludgeon.”

Prosecutors charged Diego Santiago Romero with felony menacing after he allegedly pulled out a hatchet and uttered a threatening phrase to an employee of a Grand Junction vape store. At a hearing to determine if probable cause of the crime existed, Douglas S. Walker, a retired judge, reduced the charge to a misdemeanor. He believed the hatchet was not a “knife” and, therefore, was excluded from the elements of a felony offense.

The prosecution appealed, arguing the hatchet fell under the common understanding of a knife.

“Both consist of a blade, capable of cutting, attached to a handle,” wrote Deputy District Attorney Juliann Lawrence.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel agreed.

It would be “illogical for the statute to treat this particular weapon differently from any other sharp-edged blade used for cutting and fitted with a handle,” wrote Judge David H. Yun in the Nov. 26 opinion. “For example, it would be absurd to conclude that Romero could be charged with felony menacing if he knowingly placed or attempted to place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury using a dinner knife, but he could not be so charged for using a hatchet. Although both share the essential characteristics of a ‘knife,’ a hatchet is far more threatening and dangerous than a dinner knife.”

The panel concluded Romero’s hatchet could be considered a knife. Yun noted it will be the jury’s role to ultimately determine whether all the elements of the felony charge are satisfied, including the hatchet’s status as a knife.

The case is People v. Romero.