People v. Poindexter

2013 COA 93, 338 P.3d 352, 2013 WL 3430289, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 1096
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 20, 2013
DocketCourt of Appeals No. 09CA0434
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 2013 COA 93 (People v. Poindexter) 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. Poindexter, 2013 COA 93, 338 P.3d 352, 2013 WL 3430289, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 1096 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

Opinion by

JUDGE BERNARD

T1 In Colorado, a person commits the crime of second degree burglary if that person illegally enters the dwelling of another with the intent to commit therein a crime against another person or property. § 18-4-203(1), C.R.S.2012. This appeal presents the issue whether the crime of obstructing a peace officer, § 18-8-104(1)(a), C.R.S.201%, qualifies as a crime against another person or property. We conclude that, under the cireumstances here, it does not. As a result, we reverse and vacate the conviction and sentence of defendant, Craig Lamonte Poin-dexter, for burglary.

2 Defendant also appeals the judgment of conviction and sentence entered on the jury verdiets finding him guilty of first degree aggravated motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding, obstructing a peace officer, and two habitual criminal counts. We affirm the judgments and sentences as to those counts.

I. Background

3 Defendant and another man accosted a woman and stole her car. Defendant drove the car while police officers gave chase. Eventually, defendant leapt from the moving car. He ran to an apartment building, and he broke into the building to hide from the police.

T4 Aftef' defendant was convicted, and after the trial court found beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had twice previously [355]*355been convicted of felonies, the trial court sentenced him to (1) concurrent eighteen-year prison terms for aggravated motor vehicle theft and second degree burglary; and (2) a nine-year prison term for vehicular eluding, a six-month term for obstructing a peace officer, and a six-month term for criminal mischief, which were all to be served concurrently with the sentences for aggravated motor vehicle theft and second degree burglary.

II. Analysis

A. The Burglary Conviction Must Be Vacated

15 Defendant contends that his conviction for second degree burglary must be vacated because it was based on a crime, obstructing a peace officer, that was not a crime against another person or. property. Under the cireumstances of this case, we agree.

11 6 We review this issue de novo because it involves the interpretation of statutes. Hendricks v. People, 10 P.3d 1231, 1235 (Colo.2000). When interpreting a statute, our goal is to determine, and then give effect to, the legislature's intent. People v. Hickman, 988 P.2d 628, 634 (Colo.1999). We begin with the statutory language itself, giving words and phrases their plain meanings. People v. Novitskiy, 81 P.3d 1070, 1078 (Colo.App.2008). We read the statute as a whole, and we do so in a way that gives consistent and sensible effect to all the statute's parts. Devora v. Strodtman, 2012 COA 87, ¶9, 282 P.3d 528. We avoid constructions that lead to absurd results. Town of Erie v. Eason, 18 P.3d 1271, 1276 (Colo.2001).

T7 As relevant here, section 18-4-203(1) provides that

[a] person commits second degree burglary, if the person knowingly breaks an entrance into [or] enters unlawfully in ... a building or occupied structure with intent to commit therein a crime against another person or property.

(Emphasis supplied.)

18 Here, the prosecution charged that defendant burglarized an apartment, building with the intent to commit therein the crime of obstructing a peace officer under section 18-8-104(1)(a). That section provides:

A person commits obstructing a peace officer ... when, by using or threatening to use violence, force, physical interference, or an obstacle, such person knowingly obstructs, impairs, or hinders the enforcement of the penal law or the preservation of the peace by a peace officer, acting under color of his or her official authority....

T9 Defendant argues that obstructing a peace officer is not "a crime against [a] person or property" but is, instead, an offense against governmental operations. Accordingly, he asserts, obstructing a peace officer does not fall within the class of crimes designated by the legislature as possible predicates to burglary because it is not a crime against another person or property.

110 The prosecution contends that obstructing a peace officer constitutes a crime against a person-the peace offieer-because it threatens the officer's person, and is, therefore, a proper basis for a conviction of second degree burglary. Under the cireum-stances of this case, we agree with defendant.

1. Definitions and Common Law Principles

11 The General Assembly has not defined the term "crime against a person." However, Black's Law Dictionary provides the following definitions that aid our analysis. And the General Assembly has stated that the terms "crime" and "offense" are synonymous under Colorado law. § 18-1-104(1), C.R.S. 2012.

[Crimes against persons. A category of criminal offenses in which the perpetrator uses or threatens to use foree. Examples include murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery.

Black's Law Dictionary 401 (8th ed. 2004).

[Offense against the person. A crime against the body of another human being. The common-law offenses against the person were murder, manslaughter, mayhem, rape, assault, battery, robbery, false im[356]*356prisonment, abortion, seduction, kidnapping, and abduction.

Td. at 1112.

Black's also defines "crimes against property" as

[a] category of criminal offenses in which the perpetrator seeks to derive an unlawful benefit from-or do damage to-another's property without the use or threat of force. Examples include burglary, theft, and arson (even though arson may result in injury or death).

Id. at 401 (emphasis added).

112 Under this definition of a "crime against property," the fact that an offense carries a risk of physical harm to a person does not necessarily establish that the offense is a "crime against a person."

{13 An "offense against public justice and authority" is

[a] crime that impairs the administration of justice. The common-law offenses of this type were obstruction of justice, barratry, maintenance, champerty, embracery, escape, prison breach, reseue, misprision of felony, compounding a crime, subornation of perjury, bribery, and misconduct in office.

Id. at 1112.

1 14 Many of the offenses that are included in this last definition involve misconduct against another person who is acting in an official capacity or otherwise performing a public function. Yet the offense is not classified as a "crime against a person." For example, at common law, the crime of obstruction of justice was defined as

[interference with the orderly administration of law and justice, as by giving false information to or withholding evidence from a police officer or prosecutor, or by harming or intimidating a witness or juror.

Id. at 1107.

{15 Thus, at common law, obstruction of justice could be based on harming or intimidating a witness or juror-a person. Yet it was not an offense against that person. Rather, it was an offense against public justice and authority.

2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 COA 93, 338 P.3d 352, 2013 WL 3430289, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 1096, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-poindexter-coloctapp-2013.