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Certiorari to the District Court, Larimer County District
Court Case No. 17CV31055, Honorable Gregory M. Lammons, Judge
Attorneys for Petitioner: Megan A. Ring, Public Defender, C.
May Nickel, Deputy Public Defender, Fort Collins, Colorado
Attorneys
for Respondent: Clifford E. Riedel, District Attorney, Eighth
Judicial District, Joshua D. Ritter, Deputy District
Attorney, Fort Collins, Colorado
OPINION
HOOD,
JUSTICE.
[¶1]
After pleading guilty to Driving While Ability Impaired,
Quinten Martinez was sentenced to jail and probation under
section 42-4-1307, C.R.S. (2019). The county court twice
revoked his probation and resentenced him. Martinez has
served 608 days in jail related to this offense, of which 458
stem from probation violations.
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[¶2]
We conclude that the sentence imposed for Martinezs second
probation violation was illegal. We hold that under section
42-4-1307(7), the maximum cumulative amount of jail time a
court may impose for probation violations stemming from a
second or subsequent alcohol- or drug-related misdemeanor
driving offense is 365 days. We therefore reverse the
district courts judgment and remand the case with
instructions to vacate Martinezs sentence, resentence him
under section 42-4-1307(6) and (7), and correct the mittimus.
I. Facts and Procedural History
[¶3]
Three procedural events drive the legal analysis in this
case:
• In August 2015, Martinez pled guilty to a fourth
misdemeanor traffic offense of Driving While Ability
Impaired.[1] The court sentenced him to 515 days in
the county jail— 150 days to be served directly and 365
days suspended— and forty-eight months of supervised
probation.
• In August 2016, the court revoked Martinezs probation
and resentenced him to 720 days in jail with 365 days
suspended— leaving 355 days to be served
directly— and thirty-six months of supervised
probation.
• In July 2017, the court revoked Martinezs probation a
second time and sentenced him to 365 days in jail.
[¶4]
Martinez appealed this last sentencing order to the district
court, arguing that section 42-4-1307(7)(c)(1) limits to 365
days the cumulative period of incarceration for probation
violations for misdemeanor traffic offenses involving alcohol
or drugs ("DUI").[2] Because he had already
served 355 days in jail for probation violations, he asserts
that the maximum jail sentence the court could impose was ten
days. Martinez also moved for a stay of execution, which the
trial court granted. By the time the stay entered, Martinez
had already served 103 days of his 365-day sentence on the
second revocation.
[¶5]
The district court affirmed the sentence. It concluded that
when a defendant violates probation, "[t]he trial court
has the discretion to either impose suspended jail time and
continue the defendant on probation or to revoke probation
and resentence the defendant."
[¶6]
We granted Martinezs petition for ...