Martinez v. People

Page 753

          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.

Page 754

         [¶2] We conclude that the sentence imposed for Martinez’s 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 court’s judgment and remand the case with instructions to vacate Martinez’s 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 Martinez’s 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 Martinez’s 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 Martinez’s petition for ...