fentanyl
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Appeals court finds Denver jury convicted man for possessing more fentanyl than evidence showed
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded a Denver jury convicted a defendant of a felony for possessing more than four grams of an illegal substance when the evidence actually showed it was not close to even one gram. At his 2023 trial, a jury convicted Cesar Noel Garcia for misdemeanor possession of methamphetamine and felony…
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El Paso County Coroner warns of drug 100 times stronger than fentanyl
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A person who died in August in Colorado Springs is the first known instance in El Paso County of a case involving carfentanil without fentanyl, according to a news release by the county’s coroner. Carfentanil is a powerful synthetic opioid used to sedate large animals like elephants. The drug is 100 times more potent than…
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Appeals court overturns Adams County drug convictions due to unconstitutional police conduct
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Colorado’s second-highest court overturned a man’s drug convictions and 25-year prison sentence on Thursday after concluding two Northglenn police officers unconstitutionally transformed a traffic stop into a drug investigation without reasonable suspicion of a crime. Clifton E. McRae, who was originally stopped for making an illegal turn, repeatedly declined to consent to a search of…
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Colorado justices, 5-2, rule jury may consider victim’s suicidality in fentanyl distribution case
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The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a 2022 state law allows jurors to hear about a victim’s suicidal intentions when determining if a defendant is guilty of selling fentanyl and causing the victim’s death. The justices interpreted for the first time a relatively new law imposing harsher penalties for those who distribute the synthetic opioid…
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Appeals court orders new child abuse trial after defense lawyer overrode client, admitted guilt
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A man serving 28 years for child abuse will receive a new trial, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday, because the defense attorney overrode his client’s wishes and told the jury the defendant was guilty in the overdose death of his son. After a mistrial, a second trial resulted in jurors convicting Joenny Manuel Astacio…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear murder, noise pollution, fentanyl cases
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will decide whether a man can be tried a second time for murder after jurors rendered a verdict that made no sense if they had followed their instructions. At least three of the seven justices must agree to hear a case on appeal. The court also elected…
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Study: Fentanyl-related deaths cost Colorado estimated $16 billion last year
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It only takes 2 milligrams of fentanyl to be fatal. A record 425.6 kilograms of fentanyl — enough to kill the state’s population between 16* and 26 times over, depending on the purity of the drugs — was seized in Colorado in 2023 by the Drug Enforcement Administration Rocky Mountain Field Division. That year, Colorado saw…
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DEA links Mexican cartels to drugs in Colorado and Denver’s fentanyl epidemic
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Agents from U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division on Thursday seized more than 50,000 pills of fentanyl and more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine in metro Denver. Little else is known about the details of the operation, which tallied one of the biggest seizures of the drug so far this year. Authorities told…
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DEA links Mexican cartels to drugs in Colorado and Denver’s fentanyl epidemic
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Agents from U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division on Thursday seized more than 50,000 pills of fentanyl and more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine in metro Denver. Little else is known about the details of the operation, which tallied one of the biggest seizures of the drug so far this year. Authorities told…
