judge craig welling
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Appeals court directs Jeffco judge to reconsider releasing man’s car from Lakewood police custody
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week directed a Jefferson County judge to reconsider a man’s request for Lakewood police to return his car, which the city declined to release even after his criminal case was resolved. Police arrested Kameron Murphy in September 2022 and charged him with tampering with the body of his recently deceased girlfriend,…
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Appeals court reverses Weld County robbery convictions due to unreliable witness ID
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s convictions out of Weld County last week, concluding the victim’s identification was unreliable and may have been the product of police influence. In August 2019, a teenage pizza delivery driver was leaving his job. Just after he closed the door to his vehicle, a man opened it, told the…
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Appeals court clarifies defendant need not prove relationship with own children to modify restraining order
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Colorado’s second-highest court clarified on Thursday that a defendant did not need to demonstrate the nature of his relationship with his biological children in order to argue that a no-contact order infringed on his constitutional rights. Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a decision in Salah v. People, addressing what should happen when a convicted sex offender…
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Appeals court overturns carjacking-related convictions after evidence error
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Colorado’s second-highest court overturned some of a defendant’s carjacking-related convictions on Thursday, finding Arapahoe County prosecutors failed to establish that his text messages apparently confessing to the crime were admissible as evidence. The three-judge Court of Appeals panel also concluded the search warrant used to obtain information from T-Mobile was unconstitutionally broad, with some judges…
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Divided appeals court says COVID-19 did not cause ‘direct physical loss’ to senior care facilities
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health orders did not cause a “direct physical loss” to the property of various assisted living facilities to the point of triggering insurance coverage. By 2-1, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel relied on the reasoning of recent federal court opinions and…
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Denver judge wrongly found government had proven juvenile’s probation violation, says appeals court
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Colorado’s second-highest court last month rejected a Denver judge’s conclusion that a juvenile defendant had violated the terms of his probation, which resulted in a sentence of 15 days’ detention plus additional probation. In a May 1 opinion, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel noted a juvenile identified as M.M-S. pleaded guilty to possessing a…
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Appeals court rejects teacher union challenge to ‘partially effective’ performance rating
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday rejected the claim that the state’s board of education exceeded its authority by allowing a teacher’s “partially effective” performance rating to negatively affect his or her job protections. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel also concluded the board acted properly in limiting the reasons why a teacher can appeal an…
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Colorado’s new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction upheld, despite cautions from some appeals judges
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Colorado’s second-highest court has upheld the recently reworded definition of “reasonable doubt” that appears in the template jury instructions for criminal trials, which generated controversy at the time of its debut. In a pair of precedent-setting opinions issued the same day last week, two separate panels for the Court of Appeals found no legal deficiency…
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‘Dabs made me do it?’ Colorado justices ponder when defendants can rely on laced drugs as defense
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court struggled last week to determine where to draw the line between allowing defendants to argue they unwittingly consumed a substance that caused them to engage in criminal behavior, while also preventing a wave of unsubstantiated claims about laced drugs. Under state law, “involuntary intoxication” is an affirmative defense, meaning…
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‘Deceivingly complicated’: Appeals judges talk to lawyers about postconviction cases
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Members of Colorado’s second-highest court told lawyers and judges on Thursday what they are looking for when a convicted defendant argues they are entitled to relief for reasons beyond the typical array of trial-related errors. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, which usually allege errors before trial, at trial or at sentencing, defendants…