People v. Reed

Decision Date10 April 2006
Docket NumberNo. 05SA299.,05SA299.
Citation132 P.3d 347
PartiesThe PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Timothy Ryan REED, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtColorado Supreme Court

Carol Chambers, District Attorney, Eighteenth Judicial District, Andrew Cooper, Deputy District Attorney, Centennial, for Plaintiff/Appellant.

Springer and Steinberg, P.C., Harvey A. Steinberg, Michael P. Zweibel, Denver, for Defendant/Appellee.

Justice COATS delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The People brought an interlocutory appeal, by authority of sections 18-1-202(11) and 16-12-102(2), C.R.S. (2005), challenging a venue determination of the Arapahoe County District Court. The district court severed a number of criminal charges filed against the defendant in Arapahoe County in separate counts of a single, multi-count information, finding venue proper for the severed charges in Denver County. Because the district court failed to determine, however, whether the severed counts were also triable, within the meaning of section 18-1-202, in Arapahoe County, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

The defendant, Timothy Ryan Reed, was charged in Arapahoe County with a number of crimes, arising from the alleged kidnapping and assault of Leon Beccue and the arrest of the defendant at his own home on the day of Beccue's release. Following a preliminary hearing and a suppression hearing, the defendant challenged the propriety of venue in Arapahoe County for the prosecution of a number of the individual charges. The district court heard the arguments of counsel and, in reliance on testimony from those prior hearings, severed certain counts of the multi-count information, finding venue proper in Denver County.

Testimony from the victim and investigating officers at the preliminary hearing indicated that the victim was assaulted by the defendant and one or more accomplices, between nine and ten o'clock on the night of October 23, 2003, in Arapahoe County. The victim testified that the men then forced him into a truck and transported him against his will to a vacant apartment in Denver. The victim was detained there until the next morning, when he managed to escape. Almost immediately, however, the defendant and another man arrived at the apartment complex and, armed with a shotgun, forced the victim into their car. They then drove him to his home in Jefferson County, from which they seized items of monetary value. Sometime in the early evening of October 24, following a forced trip to a pawn shop, the victim convinced the defendant to let him go and sought medical treatment.

At the suppression hearing, officers whom the district court expressly found credible testified that the Englewood police were called and a detective was sent to Swedish Memorial Hospital to interview the victim. After determining its location in Denver, police officers from both Englewood and Denver drove to the defendant's home about eight o'clock that evening. They discovered a stolen vehicle parked in the driveway, as well as brass knuckles and methamphetamine on the defendant's person. A handgun and items that had been seized from the victim's home were found during a search of the defendant's residence. The defendant told the officers that he had purchased the car from the victim for $13,000, only to discover later that it had been stolen. According to various officers, he admitted fighting with the victim in an attempt to get his money back; hitting the victim with the brass knuckles; and taking the drugs, and other things, from the victim in lieu of money to satisfy this "debt."

The District Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial District charged the defendant in a single information with: 1) first degree kidnapping; 2) conspiracy to commit kidnapping; 3) possession of more than one gram of methamphetamine (as a second offense); 4) first degree burglary; 5) aggravated robbery (with a shotgun); 6) first degree aggravated motor vehicle theft; 7) possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute; 8) second degree assault (with metallic knuckles); 9) possession of a weapon by a previous offender (both a shotgun and a handgun); 10) possession of an illegal weapon (metallic knuckles); 11) committing a crime of violence (kidnapping, assault, and robbery, with a shotgun, a handgun, and metallic knuckles); and 12) being a special drug offender (by having available a handgun while possessing methamphetamine). The information alleges that all counts were committed in Arapahoe County during the period of October 23 through 24, 2003. The district court found probable cause to bind over all of the charges for trial except first degree kidnapping, and it permitted the People to add a thirteenth count charging second degree kidnapping. The court also found that the defendant's consent to search his home was not voluntarily given, and it therefore suppressed the handgun and other items found during that search. In addition, it granted the defendant's motion to sever the charge of possession of a weapon by a previous offender, as relief from prejudicial joinder.

After hearing argument, incorporating its findings from previous hearings, and finding good cause for the defendant's failure to challenge venue in writing within 20 days of arraignment, the court turned to the "change of venue issue," which it characterized as also operating "as a prima facie severance of counts." It concluded that those charges resulting, originating, or deriving from evidence discovered at the defendant's home when the police arrested him were "distinct and separate" from the allegations of kidnapping and assault. Noting that severance of the methamphetamine and possession of a weapon by a previous offender counts was separately required, apparently because they would entail proof of prior offenses, the court found that venue was proper in Denver County for counts three and seven (possession of methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute), counts nine and ten (possession of a weapon by a previous offender and possession of an illegal weapon), and count six (aggravated motor vehicle theft), and it ordered those counts severed.

The People immediately filed a notice of interlocutory appeal, as authorized by sections 18-1-202(11), C.R.S. (2005) and 16-12-102(2), C.R.S. (2005).

II.

The Colorado Constitution provides for trial in criminal prosecutions "by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed." Colo. Const. art. II, § 16. We have construed the term "district" to allow the legislature the freedom to define the area within which a criminal trial may take place, as long as that area is confined to the vicinity in which the offense allegedly occurred. Wafai v. People, 750 P.2d 37, 46 (Colo.1988). Although we have noted that the legislature has not yet chosen to exercise its power to redefine the locality from which a jury can be drawn, id., and has instead continued to limit venue in criminal actions to the county in which the crime was committed, see § 18-1-202(1), C.R.S. (2005), we have also noted that the legislature has chosen to expand the situs of various types of crimes, and crimes committed in various ways, statutorily deeming them to be committed, and therefore to be triable, in more than one county. See People v. Taylor, 732 P.2d 1172, 1177 (Colo.1987).

Prior to 1992, in the absence of any legislative provision to the contrary, a defendant's right to trial in the county where the crime was committed was vindicated at the trial itself, with the prosecution having an obligation to prove venue as alleged, just "as any other issue in the case." People v. Cortez, 737 P.2d 810, 811 (Colo.1987). If the issue was raised, id., and the prosecution failed to prove venue to the satisfaction of the trier of fact, beyond a reasonable doubt, see Tate v. People, 125 Colo. 527, 247 P.2d 665, 669 (1952), the defendant was entitled to acquittal, People v. Gould, 193 Colo. 176, 563 P.2d 945, 946 (1977). Therefore, in a jury trial, unless there was not even sufficient evidence of the location of the crime to withstand a motion for judgment of acquittal, the issue was one for jury determination. E.g., Claxton v. People, 164 Colo. 283, 434 P.2d 407, 410 (1967).

In 1992, however, the legislature radically changed the nature and effect of a venue determination, see Ch. 73, sec. 12, § 18-1-202(11), 1992 Colo. Sess. Laws 396, 402,1 placing Colorado among a small minority of jurisdictions treating venue solely as a procedural prerequisite to prosecution. Wayne R. LaFave et al., Criminal Procedure § 16.1(g) (2d ed.1999) (citing similar procedural schemes in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, and Utah); Nancy Hollander et al., Wharton's Criminal Procedure § 10:14 (14th ed.2005). No longer is an allegation of venue a matter to be proved to the satisfaction of the jury, as other elements of an offense, unless the statute defining the crime actually requires as much. § 18-1-202(11), C.R.S. (2005). Instead, any objection to the place of trial authorized by this provision is waived unless it is raised by written motion before trial, in the manner prescribed. Id.

Any challenge to the place of trial pursuant to section 18-1-202 is now to be resolved by the court, prior to trial and selection of the jury. Id. If the court finds that trial is not proper in the county in which the charges were filed, it is required to transfer the case to a court of appropriate jurisdiction in the proper county. Id. While the statute does not further describe the nature of this determination, by expressly excluding the jury from any role in vindicating the right to proper venue, it necessarily implies that the court is to act as the ultimate trier of fact, rather than merely to assess the adequacy of pleadings or the...

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    • United States
    • Colorado Supreme Court
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    ...16–12–102(2), C.R.S. (2012), have clearly expanded the scope of the prosecutor's right of interlocutory appeal, see, e.g.,People v. Reed, 132 P.3d 347, 351 (Colo.2006) (finding of improper venue subject to interlocutory review pursuant to section 16–12–102(2)), in the absence of argument se......
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