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.
¶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 certiorari
review.[3]
II.
Analysis
¶7
After discussing the standard of review, we interpret section
42-4-1307. Because the statute's silence regarding
sentencing after revocation creates ambiguity, we apply
several canons of statutory construction that help us discern
the legislature's intent. We conclude that when a
defendant is sentenced to probation as part of his sentence
for a second or subsequent DUI offense and then violates the
terms of that probation, the court may impose all or part ...