People v. LaRosa

2013 CO 2, 293 P.3d 567
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJanuary 14, 2013
DocketNo. 11SC664
StatusPublished
Cited by206 cases

This text of 2013 CO 2 (People v. LaRosa) 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
People v. LaRosa, 2013 CO 2, 293 P.3d 567 (Colo. 2013).

Opinions

Chief Justice BENDER

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

I. Introduction

T1 Jason LaRosa, the defendant, confessed to his wife, his mother, his pastor, a police dispatcher, and an investigating police officer [570]*570that he had sexually assaulted his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. He was charged with various crimes, and a jury convicted him of all charges. On appeal, a division of the court of appeals reversed LaRosa's convie-tions under the corpus delicti rule.1 That rule requires the prosecution to prove that a crime occurred using evidence other than a defendant's confession. The court of appeals reasoned that the prosecution had presented only opportunity evidence (other than the confessions) establishing that LaRosa had an opportunity to commit a crime, not that the crimes in fact occurred. The People appealed to this court, and we granted certiorari to address the viability of the corpus delicti rule.

T2 This case requires us to decide whether to abandon our judicially created corroboration requirement, the corpus delicti rule, and with it over one hundred years of precedent. If we abandon the corpus delicti rule, then we must decide another issue: what corroboration requirement, if any, to articulate in its place. The People argue that we should abandon the corpus delicti rule in favor of the trustworthiness standard, which requires corroborating evidence that proves that a confession is reliable, or, in the alternative, the sufficiency of the evidence test, which requires no corroborating evidence. Instead, the sufficiency of the evidence test would treat confessions like any piece of evidence to be analyzed in the light most favorable to the prosecution during a motion for a judgment of acquittal.

T3 We abandon the corpus delicti rule because we hold that sound reasons exist for doing so. In its place, we articulate the trustworthiness standard, which requires the prosecution to present evidence that proves that a confession is trustworthy or reliable. To determine whether corroborating evidence proves the trustworthiness or reliability of a confession, we hold that the trial court must find that corroboration exists from one or more of the following evidentiary sources: facts that corroborate facts contained in the confession; facts that establish the crime which corroborate facts contained in the confession; or facts under which the confession was made that show that the confession is trustworthy or reliable.

1 4 Applying the trustworthiness standard to this case raises another issue. We must decide whether applying the trustworthiness standard here would violate LaRosa's due process right to have fair warning of any judicial decision altering a common law doctrine of criminal law. We hold that, because we have consistently applied the corpus de-licti rule as a substantive principle of law for over one hundred years, LaRosa did not have fair warning of our decision to abandon it. Thus, we are constitutionally prohibited from applying the trustworthiness standard in this case.

15 Hence, we affirm the court of appeals' decision reversing LaRosa's convictions. We remand the case to that court with directions to return it to the trial court to enter a judgment of acquittal.

II. Facts and Proceedings Below

T6 While in Florida, LaRosa called an emergency dispatch operator in Douglas County and told her that he had had inappropriate sexual contact with his two-and-a-half year-old daughter. LaRosa explained that he had already called his wife, mother, and pastor and told them the same thing. The dispatcher told LaRosa that an investigating officer would call him back. When called back, LaRosa told the investigating officer that he had taken his daughter swimming at a community recreation center and had performed oral sex on her in a private family shower while he masturbated. LaRosa told the investigating officer that he would return to Colorado and turn himself in to authorities, which he did. Upon arrival, LaRosa was arrested and charged with sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, and aggravated incest.2

[571]*57117 Before trial, LaRosa filed a motion to dismiss the charges under the corpus delicti rule. He argued that his confessions to the dispatcher and the investigating officer were insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction because there was no physical evidence that a crime had occurred. There were no eyewitnesses, and his daughter could not remember the incident. The prosecution contended that it would present evidence at trial corroborating LaRosa's confessions, including medical evidence and the daughter's statements to a social worker. Ultimately, the prosecution presented neither. The trial court denied LaRosa's motion, and the case went to trial.

18 The prosecution's case depended on LaRosa's confessions to the dispatcher and the investigating officer, both of which were admitted into evidence. The dispatcher testified that she had training and experience dealing with callers who suffer from mental illness, and LaRosa had seemed "very lucid" during their conversation. The investigating officer testified that he also had experience dealing with mentally ill callers, and during his confession LaRosa had provided a coherent story, explained his motivation for confessing, described his expectations of what would happen to him, and at no point suggested "he was out of touch with reality." The prosecution's other evidence consisted of the recreation center's visitor logs, which showed that LaRosa had visited the center several times, and photographs of the family shower rooms.

19 Following the prosecution's case-in-chief, LaRosa moved for a judgment of acquittal, again based on the corpus delicti rule. LaRosa argued that the prosecution's evidence was opportunity evidence showing only that he had the opportunity to commit a crime, not that the crimes occurred. The trial court denied LaRosa's motion.

'T 10 The trial continued, and LaRosa testified that, when he confessed, he was suffering from marital and financial problems, was "extremely tired," and had confessed to fictitious events. The jury convicted him of all charges.

T11 On appeal, a division of the court of appeals reversed LaRosa's convictions based on the corpus delicti rule. That court reasoned that the prosecution had not presented evidence other than his confessions to establish that the crimes occurred. Rather, the prosecution's evidence established that La-Rosa had an opportunity to sexually assault his child, "which every custodial parent has on a virtually continuing basis." The court of appeals therefore reversed LaRosa's convictions and directed the trial court to enter a judgment of acquittal. The People appealed to this court, and we granted certiorari to examine the viability of the corpus delicti rule in Colorado.3

III. Applicable Law

T 12 Before addressing the parties' contentions, we provide an overview of the applicable law. Specifically, we discuss the judicially created corroboration requirement and its two formulations at issue here, the corpus delicti rule and the trustworthiness standard.

1 13 Almost all courts adhere to a corroboration requirement, which requires the prosecution to present corroborating evidence of a defendant's confession to either allow for its admission into evidence or sustain a conviction. Kenneth S.

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Bluebook (online)
2013 CO 2, 293 P.3d 567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-larosa-colo-2013.