People v. Reed, No. 05SA299.

• Docket Nº: No. 05SA299.
• Citation: 132 P.3d 347
• Case Date: April 10, 2006
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

132 P.3d 347 The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Timothy Ryan REED, Defendant-Appellee. No. 05SA299. Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc. April 10, 2006.

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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

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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...