Doubleday v. People

2016 CO 3, 364 P.3d 193, 2016 WL 145323
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJanuary 11, 2016
DocketSupreme Court Case 12SC916
StatusPublished
Cited by227 cases

This text of 2016 CO 3 (Doubleday v. People) 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
Doubleday v. People, 2016 CO 3, 364 P.3d 193, 2016 WL 145323 (Colo. 2016).

Opinion

JUSTICE GABRIEL

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

T1 A jury found the petitioner, John Andrew Doubleday, guilty of felony murder, despite finding him not guilty, based on the affirmative defense of duress, of the charged predicate offense. A division of the court of appeals affirmed Doubleday's conviction, and we granted certiorari. 1 We now reverse.

1 2 Under the plain language of section 18-3-102(1)(b), C.R.S. (2015), to be convicted of felony murder, a defendant must have committed or attempted to commit one of the enumerated predicate offenses. The question presented in this case is whether Doubleday can be said to have committed the charged predicate offense of attempted aggravated robbery when he was acquitted of that offense based on the affirmative defense of duress.

T3 We conclude that to establish that a defendant committed a predicate offense within the meaning of the felony murder statute, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements of the predicate offense, including the inapplicability of any properly asserted affirmative defense to the predicate offense. Because the prosecution did not meet this burden here, Doubleday's felony murder conviction cannot stand.

I. Facts and Procedural History

T4 According to Doubleday's testimony at trial, a gang member threatened to kill him *195 and his family if he did not repay a $1300-$1500 debt, Another gang member then hit him in the back of the head and knocked him unconscious.

15 The next night, the gang member to whom Doubleday allegedly owed the debt told Doubleday to commit a robbery in order to obtain the money due. The gang member threatened to kill Doubleday and his family if he did not return with the money, and the gang member gave Doubleday a shotgun to facilitate the robbery. One of the gang member's friends then drove Doubleday to a convenience store.

16 While attempting to rob the convenience store, Doubleday shot and killed a store clerk. He then fled.

T7 Doubleday was arrested and charged with, as pertinent here, first degree murder after deliberation, first degree felony murder, and attempted aggravated robbery. Robbery or attempted robbery was the predicate offense for the felony murder charge.

18 At trial, Doubleday teqdered~ a proposed jury instruction that stated, "If you find Mr. Doubleday not guilty of attempted aggravated robbery due to the affirmative defense of duress, or for any other reason, then you must find him not guilty of first degree murder - (felony murder)." The court refused this instruction and ultimately instructed the jury that the affirmative defense of duress applied to the charge of attempted aggravated robbery but not to the charge of felony murder.

19 In the course of its dehberatwns, the jury submitted a question to the court, asking, "If found not guilty due to duress for aggravated robbery are we foreed to eliminate first degree felony murder{?]" The jury's question then specifically referenced elements 4 and 5 of the elemental instruction for felony murder. - Element 4 was "committed or attempted to commit aggravated robbery." Element 5 was "in the course of or in furtherance of committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery, or in the immediate flight from committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery."

€ 10 Doubleday asked the court to answer the jury's question affirmatively. The court refused to do so, however, and responded by referring the jury to the instruction on the affirmative defense of duress, which advised the jurors that duress is an affirmative defense to aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated robbery but not to felony murder.

111 Later that day, the court told the parties that the jury had reached a verdict and asked if the prosecution was ready to receive that verdict, The prosecution responded by tendering a special interrogatory that the prosecution said was based on the above-described jury question. Over Doubleday's objection that the interrogatory was improper because the jury had already reached its verdict and because such an interrogatory would be "delving into the why of their verdict," the court agreed to submit an interrogatory to the jury. The interrogatory that the court submitted, which was a modified version of what the prosecution had tendered, provided:

If you find the defendant GUILTY of Count 8, Attempted Aggravated Robbery, 'd1sregard this instruction.
If you find the defendant NOT GUILTY of Count 8, Attempted Aggravated Robbery, your foreperson should check one of two lines below with an "X". Only one line should be checked, and this Interrogatory should be signed by the Foreperson. Your decision in this Interrogatory must be unanimous.
__ We the jury find the defendant, JOHN ANDREW DOUBLEDAY, NOT GUILTY of Attempted Aggravated Robbery because we do not believe the People proved, with the exception of the affirmative defense of duress, one or more of the elements of Attempted Aggravated Robbery beyond a reasonable doubt.
___ We the jury find the defendant, JOHN ANDREW DOUBLEDAY, NOT GUILTY of Attempted Aggravated Robbery because we do not believe the People disproved one or more of the elements of the affirmative defense of duress beyond a reasonable doubt. *

112 The jury returned verdicts finding Doubleday guilty of second degree murder *196 (as a lesser included offense of first degree murder after deliberation) and of felony murder. The jury, however, found Doubleday not guilty of attempted aggravated robbery and completed the portion of the special interrogatory noting that the acquittal was based on the jury's finding that the prosecution did not disprove the affirmative defense of duress beyond a reasonable doubt.

T13 Doubleday moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing, as pertinent here, that the felony murder conviction could not stand without a conviction on the predicate felony of attempted aggravated robbery. After a hearing, the court denied this motion.

'f 14 Subsequently, the court merged Doubleday's two murder convictions and sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

¶15 Doubleday appealed, arguing, among other things, that (1) the felony murder .conviction had to be vacated because the jury acquitted him of the predicate offense, (2) the trial court violated CRE 606(b) by submitting the special interrogatory, to the jury, and (8) the felony murder conviction had to be reversed because the trial court had erroncously instructed the jury that duress was not a defense to felony murder.

116 A division of the court of appeals rejected these arguments and affirmed Doubleday's convictions. People v. Doubleday, 2012 COA 141, ¶¶ 1, 11-42, 70, 2012 WL 3746184. Regarding Doubleday's first contention, the division opined that the absence of duress is not an essential element of an offense that the prosecution must prove in order to establish that the defendant committed that offense. Id. at 127.

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Bluebook (online)
2016 CO 3, 364 P.3d 193, 2016 WL 145323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doubleday-v-people-colo-2016.