robbery
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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 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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El Paso County felony murder conviction overturned after appeals court cites numerous errors
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Colorado’s second-highest court last month ordered a new trial for a woman convicted of felony murder in El Paso County, finding multiple errors that were not individually damaging compromised the fairness of her trial when taken together. Felony murder does not require that a person kill the victim themselves. Instead, a defendant can be guilty…
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Colorado Supreme Court upholds Boulder bike thief’s restitution to victim
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday upheld the $2,394 in restitution a Boulder thief owed for damaging his victim’s car as he fled, rejecting the argument that the victim’s actions actually caused the damage. In the process, the justices also clarified defendants have to clear a high threshold when challenging a trial judge’s finding that…
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Colorado Supreme Court to review limits on negligence claims in case over Denver restaurant fire
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will review whether a judicially created rule barring certain types of negligence claims applies when a defendant acts recklessly to cause an injury. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to take up an appeal. The justices also signaled they may intervene in…
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Federal judge rules Circle K could fire 72-year-old store clerk who tried to stop robber
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A federal judge ruled last month that Circle K lawfully fired a 72-year-old convenience store cashier after she attempted to stop a knife-wielding robber from stealing cigarettes. Mary Ann Moreno was a 16-year employee of the company and was behind the register at a Westminster Circle K store when a man holding two hunting knives…
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Arapahoe County prosecutors’ misconduct prompts appeals court to reverse convictions
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Misconduct from Arapahoe County prosecutors and a trial judge’s refusal to provide a key jury instruction prompted Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday to overturn a man’s bank robbery convictions. In 2019, jurors convicted Steven Dudley Smith of robbery, menacing and kidnapping charges related to four bank robberies. Although police caught Smith at the scene of…
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Colorado appeals court orders new trial in Centennial murder case due to judge’s error
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An Arapahoe County judge refused to issue a key jury instruction in a high-profile murder trial, which lowered the prosecution’s burden of proof and prompted Colorado’s second-highest court to overturn the defendant’s conviction last month. Lloyd Chavez IV, a student at Cherokee Trail High School, died in May 2019 after four teenagers attempted to rob…
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Appeals court finds no error in small-town trial despite juror ‘irregularities,’ improper prosecutor conduct
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Despite multiple problems with the jury pool and the prosecutor’s improper statements at the end of trial, the state’s Court of Appeals last month upheld a Prowers County woman’s convictions after concluding any errors did not undermine the fairness of her trial. A jury convicted Carie Ann Hawkins in 2019 for conspiring to commit theft…
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Appeals court overturns conviction after video evidence contradicted security guard’s testimony
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Store surveillance footage directly contradicted testimony that a man used force in his attempt to rob a Weld County supermarket, prompting the state’s second-highest court to overturn his conviction. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals determined that witness testimony cannot sustain a conviction when undisputed video evidence invalidates what the witness said. As…
