People v. Rhorer

946 P.2d 503, 21 Colo. J. 222, 1997 Colo. App. LEXIS 40, 1997 WL 70673
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 20, 1997
DocketNo. 93CA1510
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 946 P.2d 503 (People v. Rhorer) 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. Rhorer, 946 P.2d 503, 21 Colo. J. 222, 1997 Colo. App. LEXIS 40, 1997 WL 70673 (Colo. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge CRISWELL.

Defendant, Rex C. Rhorer, appeals the judgment of conviction of second degree burglary and the district court’s later order denying his Crim.P. 35(c) motion. We affirm the order denying the Crim.P. 35(c) motion, vacate the conviction of burglary, and remand with directions to enter a judgment of conviction of criminal trespass and resen-tence defendant for that offense.

Defendant was .charged with and tried for second degree burglary, menacing, and two counts of being an habitual criminal. According, to the testimony of the victim, who was defendant’s former girlfriend, defendant broke into her bedroom through a window while she was sleeping. At that time, a “no contact” court order of the Denver County Court, issued pursuant to a municipal ordinance, was in effect.

In the elemental instruction on the burglary charge, the jurors were told that, in order to convict defendant, they had to find that, at the time of the entry, he had the intent of committing either the crime of assault, of menacing, or of violating the no-contact order. With respect to the intent to violate the no-contact order, they were instructed that it is unlawful for a person “to commit an [¿a, [505]*505any] act, which is prohibited by any court pursuant to valid order....”

The jurors were provided with a special verdict form which listed each of the three possible specific intents that defendant was charged with possessing, ie., to violate the court order, to assault, or to menace, and they were instructed that they were to check “one or more of the appropriate” items. On this verdict form, the jurors checked only the item with respect to the intent to violate the court order, and they left the other two items blank. Defendant asserts and the Attorney General agrees that, under this instruction, the jurors’ failure to check the other two items constitutes a finding that the prosecution failed to prove that defendant possessed either of the other two intents. In addition, defendant was found not guilty of the charge of menacing.

After receiving this verdict and as a part of a plea agreement, defendant pleaded guilty to the two habitual criminal counts.

While this appeal was pending, the district court, on limited remand, denied defendant’s Crim.P. 35(c) motion in which he claimed that he had received ineffective assistance of trial counsel because of a conflict of interest. Defendant appeals both from the judgment of conviction and from this later order.

I.

Because of the nature of defendant’s claims, we must first consider the trial court’s denial of defendant’s Crim.P. 35(c) motion. Defendant argues that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because of a conflict of interest that arose when the public defender representing defendant at the trial here alleged that defendant had received ineffective assistance in the proceedings leading to his previous convictions, when he was also represented by a public defender, and that his previous attorneys had failed to challenge one of the convictions when there was an opportunity to do so. We are not persuaded.

Before defendant’s trial here, his public defender filed a motion to suppress evidence of his previous convictions. That motion contained, among several other assertions, an allegation that defendant had received ineffective assistance of counsel when represented in two previous proceedings in which he had entered guilty pleas. These previous convictions formed the basis for the two habitual criminal counts here.

The prosecution challenged defendant’s motion, claiming that any attack on the earlier of the two previous convictions was time barred pursuant to § 16-5-402, C.R.S. (1986 Repl.Vol.'8A). Defense counsel then filed a brief asserting, in a one-sentence alternative argument, that the time bar should not be applied to him because “his prior attorney failed to challenge his convictions when they [sic] had an opportunity to do so.”

In its ruling on defendant’s motion, the trial court concluded that, any attack on the first conviction was time barred under § 16-5-402 and that no justifiable excuse existed. The trial court further rejected any collateral attack on the second of the previous convictions.

The constitutional guarantees of the right to effective assistance of counsel in a criminal prosecution may be violated not only when an attorney’s representation falls below that to be expected of a reasonably competent attorney, but also when that representation is intrinsically improper because of an actual conflict of interest. If a conflict of interest is asserted, and as here, no objection is raised during the trial based upon such a conflict, a showing is later required that the attorney labored under an actual conflict of interest. Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 100 S.Ct. 1708, 64 L.Ed.2d 333 (1980). While a showing of actual prejudice is not a condition of relief if an actual conflict is alleged, a mere potential conflict of interest will not justify post-trial relief. People v. Castro, 657 P.2d 932 (Colo.1983).

Reading defendant’s one sentence alternative allegation in his brief liberally, we construe it to be an assertion that the previous public defenders’ failure to make a timely attack on the first conviction amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel, and that such representational inadequacy constituted justifiable excuse or excusable neglect to extend the time bar created by § 16-5-402. [506]*506However, defendant provided no description of any basis upon which the prior conviction could have been attacked. Hence, no finding of ineffective assistance is sustainable. See People v. Boehmer, 872 P.2d 1320 (Colo.App.1993) (mere failure to challenge a prior conviction does not, by itself, establish ineffective assistance of counsel).

Similarly, defendant claimed he was deprived of effective assistance by the public defenders who previously represented him, but he alleged no facts to support this allegation. Indeed, this issue was not addressed in his supporting brief. A naked accusation of ineffective assistance of counsel, without a description of specific facts, is an insufficient basis for a collateral attack upon a prior conviction. DeBaca v. District Court, 163 Colo. 516, 431 P.2d 763 (1967).

To make the requisite showing of an actual conflict of interest, the defendant must present at least an arguable basis for the underlying ineffective assistance of counsel challenges. See People v. Wood, 844 P.2d 1299 (Colo.App.1992) (no conflict of interest between first and second attorney shown when there was no evidence that the first attorney committed error in representation and second attorney failed to advise him of the nonexistent error). Otherwise, any conflict is, at best, a potential one.

In People v. Castro, supra, the case relied upon by defendant, the public defender was placed in a situation inherently productive of divided loyalty: the simultaneous representation of a defendant in a criminal charge and the ■ District Attorney in a challenge to a petition to recall him from office.

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Related

In Re The People of the State of Colorado v. Robert Joe Dilka
2026 CO 12 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2026)
People v. Rhorer
967 P.2d 147 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
946 P.2d 503, 21 Colo. J. 222, 1997 Colo. App. LEXIS 40, 1997 WL 70673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-rhorer-coloctapp-1997.