The Colorado Court of Appeals issued its opinion in People v. Torrez on March 29, 2012.
Presentence Confinement Credit—Jurisdictions.
Defendant appealed the Jefferson County District Court’s order granting her eighty-six days of presentence confinement credit (PSCC) for the time she was physically confined in Jefferson County before being sentenced and denying her PSCC for the 1,493 days she was confined in Denver and at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP). The order was affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the case was remanded.
Defendant was confined in Denver on separate Denver and Jefferson County arrest warrants. She subsequently was ordered to be confined at CMHIP by both Denver and Jefferson County. After a Denver jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), Denver again ordered her to be confined at CMHIP.
Defendant contended that the Jefferson County District Court erred in granting her only eighty-six days of PSCC, representing the time she physically was confined in Jefferson County. Defendants are not entitled to PSCC for time they are confined in jurisdictions other than where they are seeking PSCC, if there was a separate and independent criminal proceeding that was causing their confinement in the other jurisdiction. Therefore, for the period defendant was confined before the Denver NGRI verdict, the Jefferson County District Court properly granted defendant PSCC only for the time she physically was confined in Jefferson County. However, once the Denver criminal proceeding against defendant ended, defendant no longer was barred from receiving PSCC on the Jefferson County sentence for the time she continued to be confined at CMHIP, because there was no longer a separate and independent criminal proceeding pending against her. Accordingly, the Jefferson County District Court erred in denying defendant PSCC for the period of confinement between the Denver NGRI verdict and imposition of the Jefferson County sentence. The case was remanded to the district court with instructions to grant that PSCC. The order was affirmed in all other respects.
Print 
PDF
