v. Knapp

2020 COA 107, 487 P.3d 1243
Colorado Court of Appeals·Decided July 16, 2020·No. 17CA0678, People·Published·Cited by 40 cases

Opinion

The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division. Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.

SUMMARY

July 16, 2020

2020COA107

No. 17CA0678, People v. Knapp — Criminal Law — Sentencing — Restitution

Applying the reasoning in Cowen v. People, 2018 CO 96, a division of the court of appeals holds that where a defendant is charged with one level of offense but is convicted of only a lower- level offense, an award of restitution for the offense is limited to the amount consistent with the jury verdict.

In this case, the prosecution charged Mr. Knapp with criminal mischief as a class 6 felony, but the jury found, through its interrogatories, that he committed only a class 1 misdemeanor. Mr. Knapp was also convicted of other several other offenses.

Consistent with Cowen, the division holds that the trial court’s award of restitution for the criminal mischief charge was limited by the jury’s answer on its interrogatory. The division holds, however, that the trial court could impose restitution for property and nonproperty losses attributable to other offenses for which Mr. Knapp was convicted.

The division also considers and rejects four other arguments raised by Mr. Knapp: (1) that the trial court erred by instructing the jury on the provocation exception to self-defense; (2) that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence that the victim’s brother called him a “wife beater”; (3) that the prosecutor improperly questioned him about his post-arrest silence and improperly argued that he had tailored his testimony to the evidence; and (4) that the trial court plainly erred by calculating restitution using the replacement value of several items of property without the necessary foundation.

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2020COA107

Court of Appeals No. 17CA0678 Montezuma County District Court No. 16CR88 Honorable Todd Jay Plewe, Judge

The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joshua Knapp, Defendant-Appellant.

JUDGMENT AFFIRMED, ORDER REVERSED, AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS

Division V

Opinion by JUDGE GOMEZ

J. Jones and Welling, JJ., concur

Announced July 16, 2020

Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Gabriel P. Olivares, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee

Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Julia Chamberlin, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant

¶1 Defendant, Joshua Knapp, raises several challenges to his convictions and order of restitution, one of which presents an issue of first impression: whether the rationale in Cowen v. People, 2018 CO 96, which precludes a trial court from imposing restitution for acquitted conduct, applies when a jury convicts a defendant of a lesser-level offense than that charged. We conclude that it does. Accordingly, although we affirm Mr. Knapp’s convictions, we reverse the restitution order and remand the case to the trial court with directions.

I. Background

¶2 A multi-day argument between Mr. Knapp and the victim, A.J., turned violent and culminated with the filing of multiple domestic violence charges against Mr. Knapp. At the time, Mr. Knapp and A.J. had been dating on and off for about six years. During a break in the relationship, A.J. had dated another man. According to A.J., Mr. Knapp was “constantly obsessed” about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend.

¶3 The argument started on a weekend camping trip to Utah. On Friday evening, A.J. spoke with her sister and brother-in-law on the phone. During the call, Mr. Knapp overheard A.J.’s brother-in-law

refer to him as a “wife beater.”1 Mr. Knapp became upset, both at A.J.’s brother-in-law for making the comment and at A.J. for not defending him to her brother-in-law. He remained agitated about the incident throughout the weekend, even as they returned to A.J.’s house.

¶4 According to A.J., that Sunday, Mr. Knapp remained upset and continued “obsessing” about her ex-boyfriend and her brother- in-law. Eventually, he left the house. Later that evening, in a series of texts to A.J., he expressed frustration that she didn’t “stick up for the one [she] love[s]” and asked “why would you want to be with me any way fucking woman beater.” He also texted, “If you won’t stand up for me I’m gonna stand up for myself” and included the brother-in-law’s contact information.

¶5 When A.J. woke up the next morning, she discovered Mr. Knapp had come back and slept at the house. She took her children to school and returned to find him awake and still agitated,

1 The evidence differed as to whether A.J.’s brother-in-law used the term “woman beater” or “wife beater.” We use “wife beater” because that’s the terminology the parties used in obtaining a ruling from the trial court on the admissibility of the evidence.

so she left again. While she was out, Mr. Knapp began tracking her location with the “Find My Phone” application on his phone and texting her about her whereabouts. Believing she was lying about where she was, and was actually with her ex-boyfriend, he sent back angry texts calling her derogatory names, warning her that he was watching her (e.g., “I fucking watch you bitch” and “I watched you drive by his work”), and telling her that he was waiting for her at the house. The messages scared her, and she decided to pick her children up from school rather than have them arrive at the house with Mr. Knapp there.

¶6 The events that occurred next were hotly disputed at trial. A.J. testified as follows. As she was driving toward the school, she saw Mr. Knapp’s truck rapidly approach and bump the back of her truck. She could see from his face that he was “super mad.” She continued driving and, after she passed a sheriff’s deputy, Mr. Knapp turned and drove away.

¶7 A.J. got her children and went to a friend’s house. Mr. Knapp continued barraging her with text messages throughout the afternoon, including referencing her friend’s name, noting her location when she and her friend went to the store, alternating

between telling her he loved her and hated her, and suggesting he was destroying items at her home. One of his texts also seemed to refer to her brother-in-law’s comment, stating, “Will just make all the shit talking true.”

¶8 That evening, believing from his texts that Mr. Knapp had left the house, A.J. headed home with her children. She took an alternative driving route to avoid running into Mr. Knapp. But, as she neared the house, she saw him driving toward her. He stopped, got out of his truck, punched in her driver’s side window, leaned inside, punched her, and bit through her lip. He warned her she “better get [her] ass home.” Then he jumped into her truck, took her and her daughter’s phones, and returned to his truck.

¶9 A.J. started driving forward but stopped and got out because glass from the broken window was cutting into her back. When she did so, Mr. Knapp stopped his truck and ran back toward her. He grabbed her, threw her against the truck, hit her again, and told her she “better get back home.”

¶ 10 A.J. got back in her truck and drove toward her house. Not seeing Mr. Knapp, she drove past the house and headed to the highway to get away. But as soon as she got on the highway,

Mr. Knapp sped past her. He blocked both lanes in front of her, and she stopped. He then jumped up on the hood of the truck, screamed, banged on the hood, pulled on the windshield wiper, and told A.J. to return home. This time he followed her closely.

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v. Knapp, 2020 COA 107, 487 P.3d 1243 (Colo. Ct. App. 2020).

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