People v. Childress

2012 COA 116, 409 P.3d 365, 2012 WL 2926636, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 1131
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 19, 2012
DocketNo. 08CA2329
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2012 COA 116 (People v. Childress) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Childress, 2012 COA 116, 409 P.3d 365, 2012 WL 2926636, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 1131 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge MILLER.

¶1 Defendant, Kenneth Leon Childress, appeals his judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, vehicular assault (driving under the influence (DUI)), driving while impaired by alcohol, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He also appeals the sentence imposed. We hold, as a matter of., first impression in Colorado, that complicitor liability does not apply to the strict liability crime of vehicular assault (DUI) because the crime does not require a culpable mental state.

¶2 We also conclude that (1) under the facts presented, the trial court erred by failing either to require the prosecution to elect the transaction on which it relied for the child abuse conviction or to give the jury a modified unanimity instruction; and (2) the trial court must conduct further proceedings to determine whether the reason for substitution of a sentencing judge who did not preside over the trial was proper under Crim. P. 25.

¶ 3 We therefore vacate the vehicular assault conviction, reverse the child abuse conviction, affirm the other convictions, and remand the ease for a new trial on the child abuse charge, further proceedings on sentencing, and correction of the mittimus.

I. Background

¶ 4 Defendant has two sons, B.L. and K.C. B.L. was seventeen and K.C. was three at the time of the incidents that give rise to the charges here. Those incidents occurred over the Friday night and early Saturday morning of a weekend visitation defendant had with K.C. Defendant lived in Aurora, while B.L. was living in Lakewood with nineteen-year-old H.T., his girlfriend, who shared an apartment with defendant’s girlfriend.

¶ 5 On Friday afternoon, defendant drove to H.T.’s apartment with K.C. because later that night her neighbor was going to have a party. The neighbor, H.T., B.L., and a majority of the other party guests were under the age of twenty-one. The party guests consumed large amounts of alcohol and used 'illegal drugs. At some point that night, defendant went out and purchased additional alcohol for the party.

¶ 6 Defendant also drank alcohol heavily all night and was stumbling and slurring his speech. Late Friday night or early Saturday morning, defendant took the keys to H.T.’s car and attempted to leave the party with K.C. After some discussion, B.L. and H.T. got into the back seat of H.T.’s car, and defendant drove them and K.C. to defendant’s house in Aurora.

¶ 7 After arriving at defendant’s house, the group learned that someone had pulled a gun at the party and they decided to return. B.L. took the keys from defendant and said that he would drive. Defendant got into the back seat with K.C. but did not place him in a car seat or a seatbelt. Testimony indicated that defendant urged B.L. to speed and disregard traffic signals. B.L. drove well over the speed limit and ran several red lights, eventually colliding with, another vehicle and crashing into a building. K.C. sustained serious injuries .in the accident, including a torn spleen, broken jaw, closed head injury, and facial lacerations that required multiple surgeries and could result in permanent disfigurement.

¶ 8 Defendant was charged with one count each of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, vehicular assault (DUI) and vehicular assault (reckless driving), DUI, reckless en[368]*368dangerment, and reckless driving, and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

¶ 9 The jury , found defendant (1) not guilty of vehicular assault (reckless driving), (2) not guilty of DUI but guilty of the lesser included offense-of driving while impaired by alcohol, and (3) guilty on all other counts. Defendant was sentenced to twenty-eight years in the Department of Corrections on the child abuse count, to be served concurrently with a six-year sentence for vehicular assault (DUÍ), a six-month jail sentence for driving while impaired, a six-month jail sentence for reckless endangerment, and a' ninety-day sentence for reckless driving. Defendant also received two consecutive four-year sentences for, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, to be served consecutively to his sentence for child abuse.

¶ 10 Defendant contends on appeal that (1) his vehicular assault conviction must be vacated because there cannot be complicitor liability for vehicular assault (DUI); (2) his conviction for child abuse must be reversed because the trial court failed to require a bill of particulars, require the prosecution to elect which act of child abuse supported his conviction, or, in the alternative, give a unanimity instruction; and (3) his sentences must be vacated because the judge who conducted his trial did not sentence him.

II. Complicitor Liability for Vehicular Assault (DUI)

¶ 11 The prosecution argued that defendant was liable as a complicitor for both vehicular assault (DUI) and vehicular assault (recklessness). The jury acquitted defendant on the'vehicular assault (recklessness) count but found him guilty of vehicular assault (DUI). Defendant contends that his conviction on the latter count should be vacated because a person cannot be held criminally liable as ■ a complicitor for a strict liability crime. We agree that defendant’s conviction for vehicular assault (DUI) must be vacated.

A. Standard of Review

¶ 12 We interpret statutes de novo, giving effect to the intent of the General Assembly. Dubois v. People, 211 P.3d 41, 43 (Colo.2009). Here, our construction of the. complicity statute is informed by supreme court precedent.

B. Analysis

¶ 13 Complicity is not a separate and distinct crime or offense, but rather is “ ‘a theory by which a defendant becomes accountable for a criminal offense committed by another.’” Grissom v. People, 115 P.3d 1280, 1283 (Colo.2005) (quoting People v. Thompson, 655 P.2d 416, 418 (Colo.1982)). The concept of complicitor, or accomplice, liability took root in the common law, see United States v. Peoni, 100 F.2d 401, 402 (2d Cir.1938), and the common law did not generally recognize strict liability crimes. See Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 251, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952); People v. Postad, 669 P.2d 126, 128 (Colo.1983). Colorado has codified the complicity, doctrine in section 18-1-603, C.R.S.2011:

A-person is legally accountable as principal for the behavior of another constituting; a criminal offense if, with the intent to promote or facilitate, the commission of the offense, .he or she aids, abets, advises, or encourages , the other person in planning or committing the offense.

§ 18-1-603. We are not writing on a blank slate in construing this statute, for the supreme court has already done so on several occasions.

¶ 14 In Bogdanov v. People, 941 P.2d 247, 251 (Colo.), amended,. 955 P.2d 997 (Colo. 1997), and disapproved of on other grounds by Griego v. People,

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Bluebook (online)
2012 COA 116, 409 P.3d 365, 2012 WL 2926636, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 1131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-childress-coloctapp-2012.