Chatfield v. Colorado Court of Appeals

775 P.2d 1168, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 754, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 231, 1989 WL 64643
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJune 19, 1989
Docket88SC196
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 775 P.2d 1168 (Chatfield v. Colorado Court of Appeals) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chatfield v. Colorado Court of Appeals, 775 P.2d 1168, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 754, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 231, 1989 WL 64643 (Colo. 1989).

Opinion

LOHR, Justice,

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The appellant, George E. Chatfield, seeks review of the district court’s discharge of a writ of habeas corpus issued on the appellant’s pro se petition. In his petition, Chat-field alleged that his 1977 prosecutions in Jefferson County for conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated robbery, felony menacing, and first degree kidnapping were barred by section 18-1-303(l)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1986), 1 because of the previous dismissal of a federal charge of bank robbery arising from the same incident. The district court discharged the writ without addressing the merits of Chat-field’s section 18-l-303(l)(b) claim. We conclude that the district court erred in failing to address the applicability of section 18-l-303(l)(b). However, we determine that Chatfield’s claim finds no support in the statute, and we therefore affirm the dismissal of his petition.

*1170 I.

A.

On September 7, 1976, Chatfield and an accomplice, James Pardue, attempted to rob the First Westland National Bank in Lakewood, Colorado. Their efforts were foiled when the bank president ran and called out for help. The would-be robbers then tried to make their escape. However, Chatfield was unable to locate the keys to the getaway car, so he and Pardue ran to a nearby parking lot where they accosted a woman entering her car and commandeered the vehicle. Chatfield and Pardue forced the woman to accompany them, but later released her after traveling several blocks from the parking lot.

Chatfield and Pardue were arrested by F.B.I. agents three weeks later. A complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado charging the pair with attempted bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2113(a) and (d) (1982). The federal court granted Chatfield’s motion for the appointment of a psychiatrist to examine him and determine his competency to stand trial pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4244 (1982) (now codified at 18 U.S.C. § 4241 (1987 Supp. V)). The court-appointed psychiatrist concluded that Chat-field “probably ha[d] a chronic schizophrenia” and was “quite unable to stand trial” since he could not understand the proceeding against him and could not properly assist in his defense.

Thereafter, pursuant to the United States Attorney’s motion, the federal district court dismissed the complaint filed against Chatfield and ordered his discharge to the Denver Police Department to be held for extradition proceedings on a then-pending detainer filed by the state of Missouri. While the record is unclear on the point, Chatfield contends that the federal charge against him was dismissed because the federal prosecutor did not wish to pursue the charge in light of the psychiatrist’s incompetency finding. In the instant proceeding, the Colorado Attorney General does not dispute the correctness of that characterization of the reason underlying the dismissal of the federal charge against Chatfield.

Subsequent to dismissal of the federal charge, Chatfield was charged in Jefferson County with conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit theft, attempted aggravated robbery, attempted theft, felony menacing, first degree kidnapping, and violent crime. These charges arose from the same incident at the First Westland National Bank that gave rise to the federal bank robbery charge. Chat-field pled not guilty by reason of insanity to the Jefferson County charges. A jury found him sane. The charges of attempted theft and conspiracy to commit theft were dismissed before the trial on the merits. A jury then found Chatfield guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated robbery, and felony menacing. Because the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the first degree kidnapping and violent crime charges, the trial court declared a mistrial on these two charges. On retrial, a different jury found Chatfield guilty of first degree kidnapping and not guilty of a crime of violence. Chat-field was sentenced to a term of forty-five to fifty years incarceration on the kidnapping conviction, an indeterminate to ten year term for conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, an indeterminate to five year term for the attempted aggravated robbery, and an indeterminate to five year term for felony menacing, with all sentences to be served concurrently.

B.

After his trial, Chatfield filed a series of postconviction motions and appeals, which led to the instant habeas corpus proceeding in the Jefferson County District Court. We summarize these postconviction proceedings to provide the context in which Chatfield filed the petition for habeas corpus upon which the present appeal is based.

Shortly after entry of the judgment of conviction, Chatfield filed in the trial court a Crim.P. 35 motion for postconviction relief. The motion was denied, and Chatfield then appealed his convictions to this court. We affirmed, holding that the evidence was

*1171 sufficient to support his kidnapping conviction and that the trial court did not err in failing to suppress certain evidence. People v. Chatfield, 199 Colo. 530, 612 P.2d 516 (1980).

Next, in September 1980 Chatfield filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, alleging fourth amendment search and seizure violations, a double-jeopardy claim arising from the deadlocked jury and subsequent kidnapping conviction on retrial, violations of equal protection and due process of law, and deprivation of fifth, sixth and fourteenth amendment rights to a fair trial because of failure to instruct the jury on the lesser-included offense of second degree kidnapping. The federal district court denied the petition, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Chatfield v. Ricketts, 673 F.2d 330 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 843, 103 S.Ct. 96, 74 L.Ed.2d 88 (1982).

Chatfield then filed a second habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in December 1983. In this petition, Chatfield alleged that his state prosecutions were precluded by a federal incompetency determination, and that the state prosecutions were barred by section 18-1-303, 8B C.R.S. (1986). The federal district court dismissed the petition for lack of federal jurisdiction since these issues had not been previously raised in the state courts. In dictum, the court also noted that Chatfield’s claim was without merit since a federal incompetency determination would not preclude a contrary determination in a state proceeding. In an unpublished order the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal on the jurisdictional ground.

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Bluebook (online)
775 P.2d 1168, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 754, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 231, 1989 WL 64643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chatfield-v-colorado-court-of-appeals-colo-1989.