People v. Monroe , 2018 COA 110 ( 2018 )

The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions
constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by
the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be
cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division.
Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion
should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.
SUMMARY
August 9, 2018
2018COA110
No. 13CA1604 People v. Monroe — Criminal Law — Affirmative
Defenses — Self-Defense — Use of Physical Force in Defense of
a Person
A division of the court of appeals considers whether a
prosecutor’s discussion of the availability of an avenue of retreat
impermissibly suggests a duty to retreat before acting in self-
defense. The division concludes that the prosecutors’ comments in
this case functioned to impose a duty to retreat and were therefore
improper. The division further concludes that the prosecutors’
repeated misstatement of the law, ultimately acquiesced to by the
trial court, created a reasonable probability that the jury would
convict the defendant without considering the actual elements of
the affirmative defense of self-defense.
Accordingly, the division reverses and remands for a new trial.
COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2018COA110
Court of Appeals No. 13CA1604
City and County of Denver District Court No. 11CR4258
Honorable John W. Madden IV, Judge
The People of the State of Colorado,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Sheila R. Monroe,
Defendant-Appellant.
JUDGMENT REVERSED AND CASE
REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS
Division II
Opinion by JUDGE TOW
Dailey and Dunn, JJ., concur
Announced August 9, 2018
Cynthia H. Coffman, Attorney General, Matthew S. Holman, First Assistant
Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee
Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Anne T. Amicarella, Deputy
State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant
¶1 Defendant, Sheila R. Monroe, was convicted of attempted first
degree murder and first degree assault after stabbing another
passenger on a city bus. The trial court adjudicated her a habitual
criminal and sentenced her to concurrent prison terms of ninety-six
years on the attempted murder count and forty-eight years on the
assault count.
¶2 We reverse the convictions and remand for a new trial.
I. Background
¶3 At trial, the jury heard the following evidence. Monroe
boarded an RTD bus and sat down next to James Faulkenberry.
The two almost immediately began to argue. Various witnesses
testified that both parties were being aggressive. The jury also
heard that Monroe displayed a knife, called an acquaintance over,
and suggested the acquaintance had a firearm. Eight to ten
minutes after the dispute began, Monroe stabbed Faulkenberry in
the neck. At trial, Monroe did not testify, but her counsel asserted
that Monroe had been acting in self-defense.
¶4 In closing, the prosecution argued that the stabbing was in
response to Faulkenberry’s threat to call the police. The defense
argued Monroe’s actions were in response to Faulkenberry’s
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threatening behavior and that she only used force in self-defense
because, after eight to ten minutes of heated argument,
Faulkenberry suddenly reached into his jacket.
II. Analysis
¶5 Monroe argues the trial court committed reversible error when
it permitted the prosecution to argue that the jury should consider
Monroe’s failure to retreat when deciding whether she had acted in
self-defense. Because the prosecution’s argument effectively
imposed on Monroe a duty to retreat, we agree.
A. The Prosecutors’ Arguments
¶6 During closing argument, one of the prosecutors pointed out
that Monroe could have retreated but did not. Specifically, the
prosecutor argued, “She didn’t have any duty to retreat, but she
does have a clear line of retreat, if she’s actually scared for her
safety.”
¶7 Defendant’s counsel objected. The court overruled the
objection, stating to the jury, “[Y]ou cannot find that she has a duty
or obligation to retreat. But this is an argument as to whether or
not she reasonably believed there was an imminent use of force. I’ll
allow it for that purpose only.” The prosecutor immediately
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continued in the same line of argument: “Again, she did not have
any duty to retreat but could have backed away, if she wanted to, if
she was actually afraid.”
¶8 During rebuttal, the other prosecutor revisited the topic of the
available avenue of retreat: “No one in Colorado has to run away
from someone endangering them. But let’s be clear. When you do
not remove yourself from a situation when you easily can, that
contradicts that you were in fear of being hurt.” The defense again
objected, and again the court overruled the objection while
instructing the jurors that they could use her lack of retreat “as
evidence in considering whether or not an individual . . . reasonably
believed there was a[n] imminent use of physical violence as set
forth in [the relevant jury instruction],” but that they could not use
the evidence “to say she didn’t withdraw, therefore she cannot use
that as a defense.” The court further told the jury to “consider that
to be an argument to you as to what was reasonably believed or not
believed,” and then let the prosecutor continue with rebuttal.
¶9 Immediately after this ruling, the prosecutor made the
following statements:
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 “If you’re scared of someone, if you’re caught in an
interaction with them for 8 to 10 minutes, a reasonable
person would move from it, if they have a direct line to go
away.”
 “She knows [running away is] the appropriate thing to
do. She doesn’t do that, ladies and gentlemen, because
she’s not acting in self-defense.”
The judge once again overruled the defense’s objections and
permitted the argument.
B. Standard of Review
¶ 10 Whether a prosecutor’s statements during closing arguments
rise to the level of misconduct is generally left to the discretion of
the trial court. Domingo-Gomez v. People, 125 P.3d 1043, 1049
(Colo. 2005). “Any improper argument by either counsel must be
dealt with promptly by the trial court.” Id. The prosecutor must
“scrupulously avoid comments that could mislead or prejudice the
jury.” Id.
¶ 11 We will not disturb a trial court’s rulings regarding
prosecutorial misconduct absent an abuse of discretion. People v.
Strock, 252 P.3d 1148, 1152 (Colo. App. 2010). When the
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defendant has objected, we review for harmless error, and thus will
only reverse if there is a reasonable probability that the error
contributed to the defendant’s conviction. Id.
C. The Availability of a Path of Retreat
¶ 12 Under Colorado’s self-defense statute, a person may use
physical force against another “in order to defend himself or a third
person from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent
use of unlawful physical force by that other person, and he may use
a degree of force which he reasonably believes to be necessary for
that purpose.” § 18-1-704(1), C.R.S. 2017. A person who
reasonably perceives an imminent use of unlawful physical force is
entitled to use force in defending himself or herself “without first
retreating, or seeking safety by means of escape.” Cassels v. People,
92 P.3d 951, 956 (Colo. 2004). Such a person “does not have to
consider whether a reasonable person in the situation would opt to
retreat to safety rather than resorting to physical force to defend
against unlawful force.” People v. Toler, 9 P.3d 341, 347 (Colo.
2000).
¶ 13 In this case, the prosecution raised the issue of the availability
of retreat five separate times during its closing and rebuttal
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arguments. The first three times were at least arguably subject to
conflicting interpretations: that if Monroe believed force was going
to be used against her, she should have retreated instead of
resorting to force; or that Monroe not taking advantage of an
available avenue of retreat suggests that she did not, in fact, believe
force was going to be used against her. The first would clearly be
improper, as it would seek to impose a duty to retreat.
¶ 14 The second argument may or may not have been proper.
Monroe argues that it is categorically improper. Essentially, she
argues that permitting a jury to consider the lack of retreat when
assessing a defendant’s belief that the use of force by another is
imminent would in effect impose a duty to retreat, because the only
way a defendant could convince someone that he or she had such a
belief would be to do something (retreat) he or she has no obligation
to do. The People, citing People v. Martinez, 224 P.3d 1026 (Colo.
App. 2009), aff’d on other grounds, 244 P.3d 135 (Colo. 2010),
counter that evidence of lack of retreat is germane to a defendant’s
reasonable belief of the need for self-defense. Martinez, however, is
inapposite.
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¶ 15 In Martinez, the defendant and a codefendant were charged
with assault after beating a man outside of a bar. At trial, the
defendant asserted self-defense. The evidence showed that the
defendant was driving away when the victim walked out of the bar.
Id. at 1029-30. The defendant turned around, got out of his car,
and approached the victim. Id. Though the evidence regarding how
the ensuing altercation began was conflicting, the victim ultimately
suffered a broken orbital bone and jaw bone, and had several teeth
knocked out. Id. The defendant claimed at trial that he acted in
self-defense because he was “scared and . . . nervous” about the
victim, and that the victim “had a black belt.” Id. at 1033.
¶ 16 During closing, the prosecutor told the jury that the defendant
had “made a U-turn and drove around for the confrontation.” Id. at
1031. The prosecutor continued, stating the defendant and co-
defendant “could have left. They had the perfect opportunity if
[defendant] was so scared and he was very nervous about this.” Id.
¶ 17 In context, the prosecutor’s argument was not about whether
the defendant should have retreated from an ongoing confrontation,
but rather whether the defendant should have instigated the
confrontation in the first place. In fact, in overruling the
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defendant’s objection, the court noted, “we have some testimony
that [defendant] was the initial aggressor.” Id. We therefore do not
agree that Martinez supports pointing to an unused avenue of
retreat as evidence of a defendant’s lack of belief in the need for
force.
¶ 18 There is undeniable appeal to Monroe’s call for a categorical
prohibition against permitting the jury to consider whether there
was an available avenue of retreat when assessing a defendant’s
belief in the need for the use of defensive force. First, since the
common responses to a threat are “fight, flight, or freeze,” it is far
from clear what, if anything, a person’s lack of flight from a threat
says about whether that threat was actually and reasonably
perceived; the fact that the response was to fight instead of to flee
may well be equally probative of the perception that a threat was
imminent. Moreover, the line between the use of this evidence to
judge one’s perception and the use of this evidence to judge one’s
response to that perception is so fine as to be almost imperceptible.
We have significant concern that any use of the evidence of an
unused avenue of retreat would unavoidably misdirect a jury into
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considering the reasonableness of a defendant’s response to a
threat rather than the perception of the threat in the first place.
¶ 19 Indeed, here, the prosecutors themselves struggled with, and
ultimately failed to maintain, the distinction in their own
arguments. That being said, because we conclude that the
prosecution’s argument here inappropriately imposed a duty to
retreat, we leave for another day the issue of whether it would ever
be proper to attack the veracity of a defendant’s claimed belief in
the need for defensive force by highlighting an unused avenue of
retreat. We will thus refer to the use of this argument as “arguably
proper.”
D. The Imposition of a Duty to Retreat
¶ 20 In the prosecutor’s first reference to the unused avenue of
retreat, he noted that “she does have a clear line of retreat, if she’s
actually scared for her safety.” The jury could have heard that as “a
scared person should retreat instead of using force” — a patently
improper argument. Defense counsel apparently heard it that way,
as he raised an objection that the prosecutor was asserting a duty
to retreat. The court disagreed and overruled the objection but,
apparently recognizing this ambiguity, attempted to clarify for the
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jury that it would be permitted to consider the lack of retreat as
evidence that defendant did not actually believe there was an
imminent use of force, but not for the improper purpose of
considering whether her actions in not retreating were reasonable.
¶ 21 Despite the court’s guidance, the prosecutor immediately
restated the argument in equally ambiguous terms, arguing that
she “could have backed away, if she wanted to, if she was actually
afraid.”1 Again, this language may be directed at her perception
and belief, or improperly directed at the reasonableness of her
conduct in not retreating.
¶ 22 Significantly, even after the court’s attempt to articulate the
parameters of the argument it would permit regarding the
availability of retreat, the prosecution did not alter course. Indeed,
on rebuttal closing, the arguments moved further outside those
parameters, ultimately abandoning any effort to tie the evidence to
1 Each time, the prosecutor prefaced his argument with an
acknowledgment that Monroe had no duty to retreat. This
statement alone, however, did not eliminate the ambiguity in the
argument. See People v. Castillo, 2014 COA 140M, ¶¶ 72-74 (noting
that similar comments, including the reiteration of the no duty to
retreat rule, were subject to multiple interpretations), rev’d on other
grounds, 2018 CO 62.
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Monroe at all, let alone to her perception or belief. First, the
prosecutor asserted that “[w]hen you do not remove yourself from a
situation when you easily can, that contradicts that you were in
fear of being hurt.” As with the assertions during the first closing
argument, this statement could merely be an argument that
Monroe’s actions would not support a finding that she actually
believed the use of force was imminent; but it is at least as likely to
be an argument that any person who does not take advantage of a
path of retreat by definition does not believe force will be used
against her. The latter would be clearly improper, as it would
impose a de facto duty to retreat.
¶ 23 Monroe again objected, and the court did not sustain the
objection, but reiterated what use of this evidence it would permit.
Yet, the prosecution’s argument went from ambiguous to clearly
improper. Specifically, the prosecutor argued that “a reasonable
person would move from [the danger].” This is unequivocally an
argument that Monroe had a duty to retreat.
¶ 24 At this point, the court should have sustained Monroe’s
objection and instructed the jury to disregard the argument.
Instead, the court overruled the objection and explicitly treated this
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objection (and, implicitly, the ruling on the objection) as exactly the
same as the previous objections and rulings. The prosecutor then
continued down this misleading path, arguing that retreating was
“the appropriate thing to do.” Again, the court overruled Monroe’s
objection and permitted the prosecutor to pursue this line of
argument.
¶ 25 When a prosecutor misstates the law and, upon objection, the
court “declines to direct the jury that the prosecutor’s version of the
instruction is incorrect, the court improperly permits the jury to
adopt the prosecutor’s version of the law.” People v. Anderson, 991
P.2d 319, 321 (Colo. App. 1999). In its initial rulings, the court
here attempted to redirect the jury toward an arguably proper use
of the evidence. However, the last two statements by the
prosecution unambiguously and improperly focused entirely on the
reasonableness of Monroe’s conduct, rather than on her belief or
what her conduct demonstrated about her belief, and thus
effectively imposed a duty to retreat. More importantly, the trial
court did not remedy these improper statements. In essence, the
trial court permitted the jury to believe that it could consider
whether a reasonable person would have retreated, in direct
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contravention of the instruction that no such duty exists. In so
doing, the trial court abused its discretion.
E. Harmlessness
¶ 26 Having found error, we turn to whether that error was
harmless. In so doing, we recognize that the court (and, for that
matter, the prosecutors themselves) repeatedly stated that Monroe
had no duty to retreat. We also acknowledge that the jury was
formally instructed regarding the duty to retreat.2 Finally, we do
not discount the long-established premise that we presume that the
jury follows the instructions it is given.
¶ 27 Nevertheless, on the unique facts of this case, we find that
there is a reasonable probability that the jury was misled, and that
the misleading arguments contributed to the verdict.
2 We note that the actual form of the written jury instruction
contains a typographical error, in that it placed the “no duty to
retreat” language within the second subparagraph of the first
paragraph, instead of standing alone. Monroe asserts that this
placement had the effect of misleading the jury into considering the
“no duty to retreat” as germane only to the second of the two
elements of the defense. Because the specific format of the
instruction does not contribute to our ruling, and in light of our
resolution of the prosecutorial misconduct claim, we do not address
Monroe’s assertion of error in this regard.
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¶ 28 When boiled down to its essence, the progression transpired
as follows: three times, the prosecution made an argument that
could have been interpreted as either improper or arguably proper.
The trial court told the jury to consider the statement to be
advancing the arguably proper argument. Thereafter, the
prosecution unambiguously advanced the improper argument. The
court again overruled the objection and permitted the argument,
and in so doing explicitly accepted the improper argument as the
equivalent of the arguably proper one. Finally, the prosecution
again made the improper argument, and the court simply overruled
the objection with no effort to distinguish the two arguments. The
result of this progression is that, ultimately, the court placed its
stamp of approval on the improper argument (i.e., that “a
reasonable person would have retreated,” and that retreat was “the
appropriate thing to do”).
¶ 29 By permitting the prosecutors to argue that Monroe had a
duty to retreat, the court “permit[ted] the jury to adopt the
prosecutor’s version of the law.” Anderson, 991 P.2d at 321. When
the court finally acquiesced to the prosecution’s assertion that a
reasonable person would retreat, it directly contradicted its
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instruction that Monroe had no duty to retreat. A reasonable jury
would be left with the erroneous understanding that while it would
not be permitted to impose an obligation or duty to retreat, it could
find that a reasonable person would have done so. Because of this
confusion, we cannot presume the jury correctly applied the
instruction it was given.
¶ 30 The creation of such confusion is no different than having not
instructed the jury at all, and carries the same risks. See Cassels,
92 P.3d at 956 (Failure to properly instruct the jury on the doctrine
of no-retreat “creates a risk that the jury will not acquit the
defendant because it will consider the defendant’s use of force
unreasonable in light of the possibility of retreat.”). Further,
following an “erroneous instruction precludes the jury from making
a finding on the actual element of the offense.” Griego v. People, 19
P.3d 1, 8 (Colo. 2001) (quoting Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1,
10 (1999)).3
3 While Griego addressed an affirmatively incorrect jury instruction,
the underlying rationale of the decision is nonetheless applicable in
this context, particularly in light of the mandate in Anderson. Since
the jury was permitted to be misled as to the impact of Monroe’s
failure to retreat, it cannot be said with any confidence that the jury
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¶ 31 Nor was the evidence of guilt in this matter overwhelming. We
note that, while the presentation of evidence lasted approximately
two days, the jury deliberated for almost as long. The evidence of
who was the initial aggressor and whether Faulkenberry posed a
threat when he reached into his pocket was in conflict.
¶ 32 The prosecutor encouraged the jury to reject Monroe’s claim of
self-defense solely because she failed to retreat. The trial court
allowed that argument to be made. In light of the irreconcilable
conflict between permitting the prosecution to argue that Monroe’s
lack of retreat was unreasonable and the instruction that she had
no duty to retreat, we conclude that it was reasonably probable that
the error contributed to the conviction.
¶ 33 Accordingly, the error was not harmless.
III. Monroe’s Other Contentions
¶ 34 In light of our resolution of this issue, and because we cannot
say whether Monroe’s other assertions of error are likely to occur
upon retrial, we need not address them.
properly evaluated the required element that the prosecution
disprove the affirmative defense of self-defense.
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IV. Conclusion
¶ 35 The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded for a new
trial.
JUDGE DAILEY and JUDGE DUNN concur.
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