People v. Travis

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2016COA88
Court of Appeals No. 13CA1431
Adams County District Court No. 11CR3119
Honorable Jill-Ellyn Straus, Judge
The People of the State of Colorado,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
April Rose Travis,
Defendant-Appellant.
RULINGS AFFIRMED IN PART AND CASE
REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS
Division VII
Opinion by JUDGE BERGER
Kapelke*, J., concurs
Richman, J., concurs in part and dissents in part
Announced June 16, 2016
Cynthia H. Coffman, Attorney General, Molly E. McNab, Assistant Attorney
General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee
Douglas K. Wilson, Colorado State Public Defender, Kamela Maktabi, Deputy
State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant
*Sitting by assignment of the Chief Justice under provisions of Colo. Const. art.
VI, § 5(3), and § 24-51-1105, C.R.S. 2015.
¶1 Defendant, April Rose Travis, beat her housemate with a mop
handle and stabbed her over a disagreement about money. A jury
convicted Travis of second degree assault causing serious bodily
injury, felony menacing, and third degree assault with a deadly
weapon. The trial court sentenced Travis to ten years
imprisonment and three years of mandatory parole.
¶2 Travis claims three errors on appeal. First, she argues that
the trial court erred when it denied her motion to suppress
statements she made to the police and admitted those statements
at trial. Second, she contends that the trial court abused its
discretion when it denied her motion to continue the trial so she
could hire private counsel. Third, she argues that statements by
the prosecution during closing argument constituted prosecutorial
misconduct. Travis also asserts that the cumulative effect of these
alleged errors requires reversal.
¶3 Because we are unable to determine on the record before us
whether the court should have continued the trial, we remand for
further proceedings. We reject all other claims of error.
1
I. Relevant Facts and Procedural History
¶4 Travis, her husband, and the victim lived together in a three-
bedroom trailer. The victim suffered from disabilities and Travis
purportedly helped the victim manage her money and medications.
¶5 Travis learned that the victim had between six and eight
dollars in her purse. Travis told the victim she was not permitted to
have any money (the basis for such a directive is unclear), and took
away the victim’s purse. The victim demanded that Travis return
her purse. In response, Travis slapped the victim and punched her
in the face several times. The victim fell and knocked over a potted
plant, spilling dirt on the floor. Travis ordered the victim to clean
up the mess. When the victim did not do so to Travis’s satisfaction,
Travis hit the victim with a mop handle repeatedly, tore out clumps
of her hair, and stabbed her arm with a kitchen knife. The victim
called 911.
¶6 Several medical personnel and police officers responded to the
call. While the victim received medical attention in the living room,
one of the officers asked Travis to step into the adjoining kitchen,
where he questioned her for about ten minutes. A second officer
participated in a portion of that interview.
2
¶7 After Travis told the first officer that she had attacked the
victim, the second officer arrested Travis and drove her to the police
station, where she was advised of her Miranda rights and further
interrogated. Travis again admitted to the attack during this
interrogation. Travis was charged with second degree assault
causing serious bodily injury, felony menacing, and second degree
assault with a deadly weapon.
¶8 Travis moved to suppress the statements she made to the
police at her home and at the police station. The trial court denied
her motion. On the morning of trial, Travis requested a
continuance to enable her to dismiss her public defender and hire
private counsel. The court denied that motion, the trial
commenced, and the jury convicted Travis of the offenses described
above.
II. Suppression of Travis’s Statements to Police
A. Custody Determination
¶9 Travis argues that the trial court erroneously concluded that
she was not in custody during the interview with police that
occurred at her home and that, because she was not advised of her
Miranda rights, the court erred in denying her motion to suppress
3
the statements she made at that time. Like the trial court, we
conclude that Travis was not in custody during that interview and
thus no Miranda warnings were required.
1. Law
¶ 10 “To protect a [defendant’s] Fifth Amendment right against self-
incrimination, Miranda prohibits the prosecution from introducing
in its case-in-chief any statement . . . procured by custodial
interrogation, unless the police precede their interrogation with
[Miranda] warnings.” People v. Matheny, 46 P.3d 453, 462
(Colo. 2002) (citing Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966)).
The protections of Miranda apply only if a defendant is subject to
both custody and interrogation. Mumford v. People, 2012 CO 2,
¶ 12.
¶ 11 The People concede that Travis was subjected to interrogation
at her home. Thus, to resolve Travis’s claim, we must determine
whether the trial court correctly ruled that she was not in custody
at that time.1
1 There is no dispute that Travis was in custody at the police
station.
4
¶ 12 Determining whether a person is in custody for Miranda
purposes is a mixed question of fact and law. Matheny, 46 P.3d at
462. We defer to the trial court’s findings of historical fact if those
findings are supported by competent evidence in the record. Id.
However, we review de novo the legal question of whether the facts,
taken together, establish that a defendant was in custody for
Miranda purposes. People v. Elmarr, 181 P.3d 1157, 1161
(Colo. 2008).
¶ 13 “To determine if a particular defendant was in custody, trial
courts must decide whether a reasonable person in the defendant’s
position would consider himself to be deprived of his freedom of
action to the degree associated with a formal arrest.”
People v. Pascual, 111 P.3d 471, 476 (Colo. 2005) (citation omitted).
To make this determination, a court must consider the totality of
the circumstances under which the interrogation was conducted.
People v. Barraza, 2013 CO 20, ¶ 17. Factors a court should
consider include the following:
(1) the time, place, and purpose of the
encounter; (2) the persons present during the
interrogation; (3) the words spoken by the
officer to the defendant; (4) the officer’s tone of
voice and general demeanor; (5) the length and
5
mood of the interrogation; (6) whether any
limitation of movement or other form of
restraint was placed on the defendant during
the interrogation; (7) the officer’s response to
any questions asked by the defendant; (8)
whether directions were given to the defendant
during the interrogation; and (9) the
defendant’s verbal or nonverbal response to
such directions.
Matheny, 46 P.3d at 465-66. No single factor is determinative.
People v. Pleshakov, 2013 CO 18, ¶ 20.
2. Application
a. Facts
¶ 14 The following undisputed facts inform our analysis of the
custody issue:
 At about 1:00 a.m., several officers and medical personnel
responded to an emergency call at Travis’s home.
 One of the officers approached Travis and asked her to step
from the living room into the kitchen, a distance of about
fifteen feet, so he could ask her some questions.
 No walls separated the kitchen and the living room.
 The officer questioned Travis about the events of that night for
about ten minutes.
6
 Travis’s husband was seated five or six feet away from Travis
during the interview and was within her line of sight.
 The officer did not place Travis in handcuffs or touch her
during the interview.
 The officer asked open-ended questions and maintained a
conversational tone.
 Travis’s demeanor was calm and relaxed, she was responsive
to questions and gave coherent answers, and she did not ask
the officers any questions.
 A second officer joined the interview for three or four minutes
and then left before the interview had concluded.
 Though both officers were in uniform and armed, neither
made any threats or promises or brandished their weapons.
 Immediately after the interview concluded, the first officer took
the second officer aside and told him that Travis had admitted
to having committed the assault. The second officer then told
Travis, “you are going to be placed under arrest for assault
against [the victim],” placed her in handcuffs, and drove her to
the police station.
7
b. Analysis
¶ 15 For five reasons, we conclude that Travis was not in custody
for Miranda purposes during the interview at her home.
¶ 16 First, neither of the officers used physical restraint or force on
Travis during the interview. See People v. Breidenbach, 875 P.2d
879, 886 (Colo. 1994) (“One well-recognized circumstance tending
to show custody is the degree of physical restraint used by police
officers to detain a citizen.”). To the contrary, the first officer did
not demand, but merely requested, that Travis move to the kitchen.
See People v. Howard, 92 P.3d 445, 452 (Colo. 2004) (suspect was
not in custody where the officer asked, but did not direct, the
suspect to step outside of his home).
¶ 17 Second, though Travis was never told that she was “free to
leave,” she did not appear emotionally distraught, was calm, and
never indicated that she wanted the interview to end. See
People v. Klinck, 259 P.3d 489, 494 (Colo. 2011).
¶ 18 Third, the interview was brief, lasting no more than ten
minutes. See id. This scenario is significantly different from the
circumstances in People v. Holt, 233 P.3d 1194, 1195-96 (Colo.
2010), where the supreme court concluded that the defendant was
8
in custody because at least six police officers entered the
defendant’s apartment with their weapons drawn, the defendant
was handcuffed and ordered not to move, the defendant’s voice
quavered during questioning, and the interview lasted nearly thirty
minutes.
¶ 19 Fourth, though several officers were present in and around
Travis’s home, only two questioned Travis, and one participated in
the conversation for only three or four minutes. Moreover, Travis’s
husband (who was also unrestrained) was nearby, and the officers’
tones were conversational. These circumstances are similar to
those in Pleshakov, ¶ 30, where the supreme court concluded that
the defendant was not in custody when four officers were present
during the interrogation with the defendant, but only one officer
questioned the suspect while the other officers were engaged in
other tasks; the defendant was questioned in close proximity to his
two companions, neither of whom was handcuffed; and the tone of
the interaction was conversational.
¶ 20 Lastly, although the interview took place late at night during a
response to an emergency call, it took place in Travis’s kitchen and
not in a secluded location. In People v. Cowart, 244 P.3d 1199,
9
1204 (Colo. 2010), the supreme court addressed the significance of
an interview taking place in the suspect’s home, which is inherently
less coercive than questioning in a “police-dominated setting.” Cf.
Orozco v. Texas, 394 U.S. 324, 326-27 (1969) (holding that a
neutral locus is not determinative because Miranda protections are
not limited to police station interrogations). In Cowart, four officers
went to the defendant’s home at night to question him about an
alleged sexual assault. 244 P.3d at 1204. One officer asked the
defendant to sit down in the living room and then asked him
questions while the other officers stood a few feet away. Id. During
the interview, the defendant’s wife was seated nearby, and the
defendant was never isolated from her by the officers. Id. Taking
these circumstances into consideration, the court concluded that
“[a] consensual interview that takes place in the defendant’s house
and in the presence of his wife does not exert the compulsive forces
Miranda sought to prevent.” Id. at 1205.
¶ 21 Similarly, Travis was interviewed in her kitchen with her
husband in view and the officers did not isolate her. This contrasts
with People v. Minjarez, 81 P.3d 348, 356-57 (Colo. 2003), where
the defendant was determined to be in custody when he was
10
questioned in a conference room at a hospital with the door closed
and officers blocking the exit.
¶ 22 All of these circumstances support the trial court’s conclusion
that Travis was not in custody when she was questioned at her
home.
¶ 23 Nevertheless, Travis argues, relying on People v. Polander,
41 P.3d 698 (Colo. 2001), that because it was objectively apparent
that police officers had reason to arrest her, she did not feel at
liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave, and therefore was
in custody.
¶ 24 In Polander, officers witnessed the defendant and two others
using drugs in the back of a van parked in a restaurant parking lot.
Id. at 701. The officers made an investigatory stop and patted down
the occupants of the vehicle for weapons. Id. They found narcotics
in the pocket of one of the occupants, handcuffed him, and
instructed him to sit on a nearby curb. Id. The defendant was not
yet handcuffed but also was ordered to sit on the curb while the
officers searched the van. Id. The officers then found more
narcotics in the van, and asked the defendant whether they
belonged to her. Id. She admitted that they did and the officer
11
arrested her. Id. The supreme court concluded that, under those
circumstances, the defendant was subjected to custodial
interrogation because, among other reasons, she “had every reason
to believe she would not be briefly detained and then released.” Id.
at 705.
¶ 25 But, eight years later, the supreme court held in
People v. Hankins, 201 P.3d 1215, 1219 (Colo. 2009), that a
defendant’s reasonable belief that she would be arrested is not
dispositive to a custody determination; rather, it is just one factor to
consider under the totality of the circumstances.
¶ 26 In Hankins, the court concluded that even though the
defendant confessed to murdering his wife and brought the police
officers to the site where he buried her body, “the surrounding
factual circumstances [fell] short of demonstrating restraint
equivalent to arrest.” Id. at 1219. The court so concluded because,
unlike the situation in Polander, the police did not seize Hankins
when he gave his initial confession, he invited the officers to his
home to talk, he voluntarily led the police to the burial site, and he
was not the subject of an investigatory stop or any other kind of
detention. Id. at 1220. Accordingly, Hankins’s “expectation,
12
apprehension, or knowledge of inevitable arrest” did not compel a
custody determination because “[a] consensual interview that takes
place at the defendant’s request, on his property and at a place
where he offered to drive the investigators does not exert the
compulsive forces Miranda sought to prevent.” Id. at 1219-20.
¶ 27 The facts of this case are closer to those in Hankins than those
in Polander. As in Hankins, Travis was never frisked and she
voluntarily admitted to attacking the victim. Unlike in Polander,
Travis was never ordered to stand or sit in any location while the
officers conducted their police work and none of the other
occupants in the trailer home was ordered to sit or stand at any
particular place. Though the first interviewing officer asked Travis
about the assault, he requested an explanation of the events of that
night, and did not accuse her of committing a crime. Indeed, no
accusation was made until after the interview had concluded, when
the second interviewing officer arrested Travis.
¶ 28 Travis may have reasonably expected that she would be
arrested because it was apparent that an assault had taken place,
but this factor alone does not outweigh the numerous other factors
13
supporting a determination that she was not in custody. Hankins,
201 P.3d at 1219-20.
¶ 29 Under these circumstances, we agree with the trial court that
a reasonable person in Travis’s position would not have believed
that she was deprived of her freedom of action to the degree
associated with a formal arrest. Thus, Travis was not in custody
when she gave the statements at her home to the police, and the
trial court did not err in denying her motion to suppress the
statements she made at her home.
B. Voluntariness of Statements
¶ 30 Travis also argues that the trial court erred in concluding that
the statements she made to the police during interviews at her
home and at the police station on the night of the assault were
voluntary. She argues that, regardless of whether there was
Miranda compliance, the trial court erred in denying her motion to
suppress. We disagree.
1. Law
¶ 31 The state bears the burden of establishing the voluntariness of
a defendant’s statement by a preponderance of the evidence.
Effland v. People, 240 P.3d 868, 878 (Colo. 2010). We uphold a trial
14
court’s findings of fact on the voluntariness of a statement if they
are “supported by adequate evidence in the record.” Id. However,
the ultimate determination of whether a statement is voluntary is a
legal question that we review de novo. Id.
¶ 32 The Due Process Clauses of the United States and the
Colorado Constitutions forbid the use of a defendant’s involuntary
statement in a criminal prosecution. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S.
368, 376 (1964); Effland, 240 P.3d at 877. “A confession or
inculpatory statement is involuntary if coercive governmental
conduct played a significant role in inducing the statement.”
Effland, 240 P.3d at 877. Coercive conduct includes not only
physical abuse or threats but also subtle forms of psychological
coercion. Id.
¶ 33 Conversely, a statement is voluntary if it is “the product of an
essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker.” Id.
(citation omitted).
¶ 34 Whether a statement is voluntary must be evaluated under the
totality of the circumstances. Id. Factors to consider include the
following:
15
Whether the defendant was in custody or was
free to leave and was aware of his situation;
whether Miranda warnings were given prior to
any interrogation and whether the defendant
understood and waived his Miranda rights;
whether the defendant had the opportunity to
confer with counsel or anyone else prior to the
interrogation; whether the challenged
statement was made during the course of an
interrogation or instead was volunteered;
whether any overt or implied threat or promise
was directed to the defendant; the method and
style employed by the interrogator in
questioning the defendant and the length and
place of the interrogation; and the defendant’s
mental and physical condition immediately
prior to and during the interrogation, as well
as his educational background, employment
status, and prior experience with law
enforcement and the criminal justice system.
Id. at 877-78.
2. Application
a. Interview at Travis’s Home
¶ 35 Travis argues that the statements she made to the police at
her home were involuntary because (1) she was not given a Miranda
warning prior to that interview; (2) she was physically isolated from
her husband during the interview; and (3) the behavior of the
interviewing officers and the presence of other officers in her home
during the interview constituted coercive conduct.
16
¶ 36 Though Travis was not given a Miranda warning prior to the
interview, we have concluded above that none was required. See
California v. Beheler, 463 U.S. 1121, 1125 (1983) (holding that there
is no requirement to give a Miranda warning to a person not in
custody, even when that person is the subject of interrogation).
¶ 37 The record does not support Travis’s claim that she was
physically isolated from her husband. As explained in the previous
section, Travis’s husband was only a few feet away from her, she
and her husband could see each other the entire time, and no walls
separated Travis from her husband.
¶ 38 Most importantly, there simply is no evidence of any coercive
behavior by the police ― a condition precedent to a finding of
involuntariness. Effland, 240 P.3d at 877. The officers’ behavior
did not “overbear [Travis’s] will to resist and bring about
confessions not freely self-determined.” Id. Two officers were
present for only a portion of what was a brief interview, and the
other officers were attending to other tasks. During the interview,
the officers maintained a distance of several feet from Travis, who
stood at least three feet away from the nearest wall. The interview
was conversational at all times; the officers never made specific
17
threats or demands, or promised Travis anything in return for her
conversation; the interview took place in Travis’s home; Travis never
asked to stop the interview or to speak with an attorney; and Travis
appeared calm and relaxed.
¶ 39 For these reasons, we reject Travis’s argument that the
statements she made to the officers at her home were involuntary.
b. Interview at the Police Station
¶ 40 To support her argument that her statements at the police
station were involuntary, Travis asserts that she was “stressed.”
She notes that at one point she started to write her statement, but
stopped after a few lines because she did not want to retell her
story.
¶ 41 As noted above, “coercive government conduct is a necessary
predicate to the finding that a confession is not voluntary.” Id.
(citation omitted). Even if coercive conduct is found, the conduct
must have “played a significant role in inducing the statements.”
People v. Valdez, 969 P.2d 208, 212 (Colo. 1998).
¶ 42 The record is devoid of any evidence of coercive conduct at the
police station, much less coercive conduct that played a significant
role in inducing Travis’s statements. Therefore, the trial court did
18
not err in denying Travis’s motion to suppress her statements made
at the police station.
III. Motion to Continue
¶ 43 Travis argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it
denied her request for a continuance to seek new counsel. In
People v. Brown, 2014 CO 25, a case decided after Travis’s trial, the
supreme court held that a trial court must consider at least eleven
factors when it decides such a motion for continuance. Although
the district court considered some of the Brown factors, it could not
have known at that time that the supreme court would later require
express consideration and balancing of many other factors to
resolve a motion for a trial continuance for the purposes of hiring
new counsel. Because there is insufficient information in the
record for us to determine whether the trial court abused its
discretion in denying the motion to continue, we must remand the
case to the trial court for additional findings.2
2 Although People v. Brown, 2014 CO 25, does not state whether its
holding should be applied to continuance motions decided before
Brown was announced, based on Brown’s disposition (which
remanded for the trial court to make additional findings), we
conclude that Brown is applicable at least to cases directly appealed
19
A. Law
¶ 44 A criminal defendant is entitled to representation by counsel of
her choice. Id. at ¶ 16; see also U.S. Const. amend. VI. This right
is not absolute, however. Considerations such as judicial efficiency
or the public’s interest in the integrity of the judicial process may
outweigh the defendant’s interest in being represented by a
particular attorney. Brown, ¶ 17. The trial court must apply a
multi-factor test to balance these interests. Id. at ¶ 24. The Brown
factors are:
1. the defendant’s actions surrounding the
request and apparent motive for making the
request;
2. the availability of chosen counsel;
3. the length of continuance necessary to
accommodate chosen counsel;
4. the potential prejudice of a delay to the
prosecution beyond mere inconvenience;
5. the inconvenience to witnesses;
6. the age of the case, both in the judicial
system and from the date of the offense;
after Brown. Thus, Brown is applicable to this case. See People v.
Stidham, 2014 COA 115, ¶ 17.
20
7. the number of continuances already granted
in the case;
8. the timing of the request to continue;
9. the impact of the continuance on the court’s
docket;
10. the victim’s position, if the victims’ rights
act applies; and
11. any other case-specific factors
necessitating or weighing against further
delay.
Id. The trial court must make findings on each of the Brown factors
to enable appellate review of the discretionary decision to grant or
deny the continuance. Id. at ¶¶ 19, 25; Stidham, ¶ 17.
¶ 45 Because the trial court did not have the benefit of Brown when
it denied the motion to continue, it apparently did not consider or
weigh all of the Brown factors.
¶ 46 The threshold question here is whether Brown always requires
an appellate court to remand to the trial court for further
proceedings when the trial court did not consider or balance all of
the Brown factors.
¶ 47 The supreme court did not expressly address this question in
Brown. However, its explanation for why it remanded that case to
the trial court for further factual findings is instructive, and leads
21
us to conclude that, at least under some circumstances, an
appellate court may affirm the denial of a trial continuance even
when the trial court did not expressly consider and balance all
eleven Brown factors.
¶ 48 In directing a remand to the trial court, the supreme court in
Brown stated:
Although the record contains some of the
information for evaluating whether the trial
court abused its discretion in denying the
continuance, the record lacks information
about other factors that the court should have
considered when making its decision.
Importantly, lacking from the record is any
information about how long it would take [the
defendant’s substitute counsel] to prepare for
trial. The trial court did not inquire into how
long of a continuance was needed. The record
also lacks information about the court's docket
and whether the continuance would cause
significant inconvenience for the witnesses
who had already been subpoenaed several
times. The record also does not contain
information regarding whether the trial court
considered the age of the case when deciding
to deny the continuance. Finally, the victim’s
position regarding a potential continuance is
relevant and must be considered. The victim’s
position regarding this motion to continue is
not in the record in this case. Given the lack
of information about these other factors, it is
necessary for us to remand the matter so that
the trial court may make sufficient factual
findings.
22
Brown, ¶¶ 28-29.
¶ 49 We read these passages in Brown to authorize an appellate
court to affirm a denial of a trial continuance even when the trial
court has not expressly considered and balanced the eleven Brown
factors if, but only if, the record contains sufficient information
concerning the Brown factors such that an appellate court can
meaningfully determine whether the trial court’s denial of the
continuance was an abuse of discretion.
B. Analysis
¶ 50 On the day that trial was set to begin, Travis made the
following request: “My request was that I was going to look for and
pay for an attorney. I don’t feel this case is fair regarding [the
victim]. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to come out about her. I
don’t think it’s fair to me.”
¶ 51 The court responded that because the case had been pending
for a “very long time,” Travis had had “plenty of time” to decide if
she wanted to hire private counsel. The court described Travis’s
appointed counsel as experienced, careful, and hard working. It
then denied her request for a continuance, and informed Travis
that, if she was dissatisfied with her current legal representation,
23
she could proceed pro se. Travis elected to proceed with her
appointed counsel.
¶ 52 The dissent construes Travis’s statements to the trial court as
indicating that she had done nothing to attempt to hire new
counsel, but we are not as sure as the dissent. Not infrequently,
defendants incarcerated on a pretrial basis have family members or
friends who attempt to retain counsel for the defendant. We cannot
tell from this record whether any such activities were underway.
Thus, on this record, we cannot sufficiently consider “the
availability of chosen counsel” or “the length of a continuance
necessary to accommodate chosen counsel.”
¶ 53 Similarly, there is nothing in this record that addresses the
potential prejudice of a delay to the prosecution beyond mere
convenience; the inconvenience to witnesses; the impact of the
continuance on the court’s docket; or the victim’s position, if the
victims’ rights act applies. Because there is insufficient evidence in
the record to determine the missing Brown factors, a remand is
required.
¶ 54 The dissent accurately distinguishes this case, in which the
identity of substitute counsel was not specified by Travis, from
24
Brown, in which the defendant had already retained substitute
counsel (and substitute counsel actually argued the request for
continuance). However, to the extent that the dissent argues that
Brown is inapplicable to this case because of those distinguishing
facts, we cannot agree.
¶ 55 We are aware of no authority holding that a defendant’s failure
to secure substitute counsel at the time of the motion to continue
precludes application of a balancing test weighing the public’s
interest against the defendant’s right to choice of counsel. Instead,
every case we have reviewed employing such balancing tests treats
the defendant’s success or failure in retaining acceptable substitute
counsel as a nondispositive factor that the trial court can (and,
under Brown, must) weigh in deciding the motion. See, e.g., United
States v. Burton, 584 F.2d 485, 491 (D.C. Cir. 1978) (One of the
factors a trial court may consider in deciding a continuance motion
is “whether the defendant has other competent counsel prepared to
try the case.”); State v. DeWitt, 289 P.3d 60, 64 (Idaho Ct. App.
2012) (“[I]f a defendant seeks to obtain new private counsel just
before trial, the district court must decide if the reasons for the
defendant’s request . . . justify a continuance.”); People v. Curry,
25
990 N.E.2d 1269, 1278 (Ill. App. Ct. 2013) (A court does not abuse
its discretion in denying a defendant’s motion to continue to
accommodate substitute counsel where, after an inquiry, the court
determines that counsel is not “ready, willing, and able to make an
unconditional entry of appearance.”); State v. Kates, 81 A.3d 662,
664 (N.J. 2014) (following Burton); Vargas v. State, 322 P.3d 1282,
1286 (Wyo. 2014) (same).
¶ 56 Even if the defendant’s failure to hire or even attempt to hire
substitute counsel before requesting a continuance served as a bar
to a continuance, based on the record before us, we cannot be sure
that Travis or her family had not made a sufficient (or any) effort to
identify private counsel so as to overcome that bar because the trial
court did not inquire whether she had. All we know is that Travis
desired a continuance so that she could “look for and pay for an
attorney.” While Travis’s statements might be read, as the dissent
evidently reads them, to mean that she had not yet done anything
to find new counsel, we cannot conclude with sufficient confidence
that that was surely the case.
¶ 57 The dissent also would affirm on the independent ground that
any abuse of discretion in denying the trial continuance constituted
26
constitutionally harmless error. The United States Supreme Court
has held that when a request for a continuance for the purpose of
obtaining new counsel is improperly denied, the error is structural
and is not subject to constitutional harmless error review. United
States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140, 150 (2006).
¶ 58 The parties have not briefed the question of whether the
allegedly improper denial of Travis’s request for a continuance in
this case requires the application of constitutional harmless error
review or automatic reversal under the structural error doctrine. In
the absence of such briefing we, like the supreme court in Brown,
consider it prudent not to decide the question.
¶ 59 We nevertheless reject the dissent’s suggestion that we may
affirm because any error in the trial court’s denial of the
continuance motion was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
While we do not hold that the Brown error here was structural, the
reasons that supported the Supreme Court’s determination that
structural error applies to at least some improperly denied motions
for trial continuances informs our determination that the error here
was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
27
¶ 60 As the Supreme Court has recognized, the strategies and
abilities of counsel vary tremendously. Id. Applying the strict
definition of constitutional harmless error, we cannot conclude, as
does the dissent, that even the existence of a confession makes any
error in depriving Travis of her choice of counsel constitutionally
harmless. While the confession may have rendered some conviction
very likely in this case, regardless of who represented Travis at trial,
that conclusion does not exclude the reasonable possibility that a
jury would convict on some but not all of the charged offenses or
convict on a lesser included offense but acquit of the greater
offense. In our view, though we recognize the force of the dissent’s
argument, we cannot conclude that any error was harmless beyond
a reasonable doubt.
¶ 61 Because there is insufficient information in the record to
determine if the court acted within its discretion or abused it and
violated Travis’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel of her choice by
denying the continuance, we remand the case for the trial court to
make written findings and enter an order either upholding its denial
of the continuance, or, if the court determines that Brown required
28
it to grant the motion for continuance, granting a new trial. In
doing so, the court may consider additional evidence.
IV. Prosecutorial Misconduct
¶ 62 Travis argues the prosecutor’s closing argument was improper
because the prosecutor (1) singled out lesser included offense
instructions requested by Travis and (2) told the jury that Travis’s
counsel believed Travis was guilty.
¶ 63 “Whether a prosecutor’s statements constitute misconduct is
generally a matter left to the trial court’s discretion.”
Domingo-Gomez v. People, 125 P.3d 1043, 1049 (Colo. 2005).
Reviewing a claim of prosecutorial misconduct requires a two-step
analysis. People v. McMinn, 2013 COA 94, ¶ 59. First, we must
determine whether the prosecutor’s challenged conduct was
improper based on the totality of the circumstances. Id. Only if we
conclude that the conduct was improper do we then consider
whether it warrants reversal according to the proper standard of
review. Id.
¶ 64 During voir dire, Travis’s counsel told the jury panel, “What
I’ve kind of been getting at is that the law recognizes there’s lesser
offenses. It’s pretty rare that you have a defense attorney stand up
29
here and say I’m going to tell you right now that my client is guilty
of some things, right?” Travis’s counsel went on to ask a potential
juror whether she understood that there are varying degrees of
assault. Defense counsel also told the jury during its opening
statement that Travis was “overcharge[d].”
¶ 65 In addition to instructions for the charged crimes, the jury was
instructed on the lesser included offenses of third degree assault ―
criminal negligence and third degree assault ― knowingly or
recklessly.
¶ 66 During closing argument, the prosecutor argued, in part:
Defense counsel stood up in their opening and
during jury selection and they told you my
client is guilty. We just don’t think she
committed the crime that the prosecution has
charged her with committing. That’s why you
have so many options in this paperwork. You
have the crime that we’ve charged and the
crime that the People are attempting to prove.
You have the crime that my office has charged
and then you have a lesser crime, the crime
that is encompassed in the higher charge that
my office has filed. I suspect that when
defense counsel comes up and when they talk
to you during their closing argument, they’re
going to ask you to come back with not guilty
on anything. Knowing and having admitted
that their client has committed a crime, they’re
going to ask you to come back on those lesser
offenses, the more minimal charges, charges,
30
they say their client was likely guilty of on that
night.
¶ 67 Relying on People v. Coria, 937 P.2d 386 (Colo. 1997), Travis
contends that these statements by the prosecutor essentially
created two classes of jury instructions — one class from the court
and the other from the defendant. From this purported inference,
Travis argues that she was deprived of a fair trial.
¶ 68 We first observe that Coria is factually inapposite. There, the
county court directed the jurors to mark the instruction containing
the defendant’s theory of the case with the words “defendant’s
theory of the case.” Id. at 392. On appeal, the district court
reversed the conviction on several grounds, concluding, as relevant
here, that the court’s direction to the jury deprived the defendant of
a fair trial. Id.
¶ 69 The supreme court reversed and reinstated the conviction,
holding that while the county court should not have spontaneously
directed the jurors to mark the instruction, the county court did not
comment either on the evidence or on the merits of the case or the
instruction and did not deprive the defendant of a fair trial. Id.
31
¶ 70 Even if Coria were on point, we reject Travis’s arguments. We
do not read the prosecutor’s remarks here as purporting to create
two classes of instructions. Instead, the prosecutor responded
appropriately to the statements previously made to the jury panel
and jury by defense counsel asserting that the prosecutor had
“overcharged” Travis. Moreover, it is not misconduct for a
prosecutor to tell the jury that a theory of defense instruction is not
a statement of law and that the jury need not accept the
defendant’s theory. McMinn, ¶ 63.
¶ 71 For similar reasons, we reject Travis’s argument that the
prosecutor denigrated defense counsel by implying that counsel did
not have a good faith belief in Travis’s innocence. The prosecutor’s
remarks were a fair comment on the defense’s jury argument that
while Travis was guilty of a crime, she was not guilty of the
principal charges filed against her.
V. Cumulative Error
¶ 72 Finally, Travis asserts that the cumulative effect of the errors
she alleges denied her a fair trial. Because we conclude that there
were no errors, there could not have been cumulative error.
People v. Gordon, 32 P.3d 575, 581 (Colo. App. 2001).
32
VI. Conclusion
¶ 73 Other than the trial court’s ruling on the motion for
continuance, we affirm the trial court’s rulings challenged by
Travis. We remand the case for the trial court to make the written
findings and conclusions mandated by Brown and enter an order
either upholding its denial of the continuance, or, if the court
determines that Brown required it to grant the motion for
continuance, granting a new trial. In doing so, the court may
consider additional evidence.
¶ 74 After the trial court issues its order on remand, the clerk of
the trial court must submit a copy of the order to this court and the
appeal will be recertified. If the trial court determines that a
continuance was not required, the judgment of conviction will be
affirmed, subject to Travis’s right to appeal the court’s order on
remand. If the court determines that a continuance should have
been granted, the judgment will be reversed and the case will be
remanded for a new trial, subject to the appellate rights of any
party regarding the court’s order on remand.
JUDGE KAPELKE concurs.
JUDGE RICHMAN concurs in part and dissents in part.
33
JUDGE RICHMAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
¶ 75 I agree with the majority that suppression of the statements
made by Travis to the police at her residence and at the police
station is not required and that the prosecution did not commit
misconduct in the closing argument at trial. I therefore join in
those portions of the opinion.
¶ 76 I disagree that a remand to the trial court to make further
findings regarding the denial of the motion to continue the trial is
necessary on the facts of this case and therefore dissent from that
portion of the opinion.
¶ 77 As the majority correctly observes, the denial of the motion to
continue the trial occurred prior to the decision in People v. Brown,
2014 CO 25, and in denying the motion, the court did not make
explicit findings on, or conduct an express balancing of, all eleven
factors listed in Brown. The majority acknowledges that under
some circumstances, an appellate court may affirm the denial of a
trial continuance even when the trial court did not expressly
consider and balance all eleven Brown factors, but concludes this is
not that case. I disagree. In my view, a remand for further findings
in this case is not required, even under application of Brown.
34
¶ 78 First, this case is factually and procedurally distinguishable
from Brown, because there the defendant had already retained
private counsel and private counsel had entered an appearance by
the time defendant sought a continuance. In fact, it was the private
counsel who filed the motion requesting the continuance and stated
the grounds for the request. In addition, when the motion was
considered by the court, the private counsel was present before the
court and was available to answer questions, such as how long it
would take counsel to prepare for trial, even though the trial court
did not ask. See id. at ¶¶ 8-9.
¶ 79 By contrast, in this case, Travis had not hired private counsel;
she did not identify, and apparently did not even contemplate, who
the private counsel might be. Accordingly, she had not spoken to
the private counsel and did not know if counsel would take the
case. In fact, all she said was that she was “going to look for and
pay for an attorney.”
¶ 80 Second, although the trial court did not make findings or a
record on each of the eleven factors listed in Brown, it did consider,
as the majority acknowledges, some of the Brown factors.
35
¶ 81 It did consider the age of the case and the timing of the motion
to continue. The motion to continue was filed on the morning of the
first day of trial. In denying the motion, the court stated that the
case “ha[d] been pending for a very long time” and Travis had “had
plenty of time to decide if [she wanted] to hire” private counsel.
¶ 82 The court had also considered what can be viewed as “case-
specific factors,” id. at ¶ 24, in denying a related motion to continue
filed just five days earlier. That prior motion sought a continuance
to obtain the presence of a witness to testify about the victim.
When denying that motion, the trial court noted that securing the
presence of the witness had not been accomplished, despite a
continuance of several months. The court also expressed doubt
regarding the importance of the possible testimony of the witness,
noting that she was not an eyewitness. When Travis again moved
for a continuance on the morning of trial, she explained that she
wanted to hire private counsel because “[t]here’s a lot of stuff that
needs to come out about [the victim].” Thus, her stated reason for
seeking a continuance was related to the prior motion to continue,
and the case-specific factors that the court considered in denying
36
that prior motion also applied to its denial of her motion on the
morning of trial.
¶ 83 In addition, although the trial court did not make an explicit
finding, the prosecution had previously advised the court that the
victim was under emotional stress as a result of the pending case,
and “expressed great interest” in having the case go forward.
¶ 84 Of course, the trial court did not make findings on the
“availability of chosen counsel” or “the length of continuance
necessary to accommodate chosen counsel” because no counsel
had been chosen. Id. at ¶ 24.
¶ 85 I recognize that the majority in the Brown opinion concluded
that “when deciding whether to grant a continuance to allow a
defendant to change counsel, the trial court must conduct a multi-
factor balancing test and determine whether the public’s interest in
the efficiency and integrity of the judicial system outweighs the
defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice.” Id. at
¶ 30. But earlier in the opinion, after listing the eleven factors,
Brown also states: “no single factor is dispositive and the weight
accorded to each factor will vary depending on the specific facts at
issue in the case.” Id. at ¶ 24.
37
¶ 86 Taken together, I read these holdings as directing
consideration of the applicable and relevant factors. But that does
not require a rote recitation by the trial court of all eleven factors,
nor does it mandate an automatic remand by an appellate court if
some of the factors are not discussed by the trial court. Moreover,
some of the factors listed in Brown could not possibly have been
weighed by the court because no new counsel had been identified,
and it is impractical to make findings on remand as to other factors
identified in Brown, as Justice Márquez astutely pointed out in her
dissent to Brown. See id. at ¶¶ 48-49 (Márquez, J., dissenting).
¶ 87 On the record before us in this case, I conclude that the trial
court denied the continuance because it essentially found that the
public’s interest in the efficiency and integrity of the system
outweighed Travis’s indefinite request that she wished “to look for
and pay an attorney.” That is all Brown requires.
¶ 88 Third, I note that in setting forth the standards to be applied
by an appellate court reviewing the denial of a motion to continue,
Brown states that “[o]n appeal, we do not disturb a trial court’s
denial or grant of a motion for a continuance in the absence of an
abuse of discretion” and “[w]e . . . find error only if the [trial] court’s
38
decision was arbitrary or unreasonable and materially prejudiced
the defendant.” Id. at ¶ 19 (citation omitted). I would conclude in
this case that there was no material prejudice to Travis, even if her
choice of counsel was not recognized.
¶ 89 As the majority correctly holds, Travis provided two admissible
confessions of the assault to the police: one in her home almost
immediately after the attack, and a second shortly afterwards at the
police station. The statements were frank admissions that Travis
committed an assault on the victim. Given the fact that both
confessions were admitted at trial, I believe that having her choice
of different counsel would have made no difference in the outcome
of this case, and thus, any error by the trial court was harmless
beyond a reasonable doubt.
¶ 90 I recognize that in United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez,
548 U.S. 140, 150 (2006), the Supreme Court held that when a
defendant’s choice of counsel is denied, structural error applies.
Gonzalez-Lopez states that “[w]here the right to be assisted by
counsel of one’s choice is wrongly denied, . . . it is unnecessary to
conduct an ineffectiveness or prejudice inquiry to establish a Sixth
Amendment violation.” Id. at 148. The majority states that it need
39
not address whether the constitutional harmless error test is
applicable here. I conclude that it can be applied.
¶ 91 In this case, Travis was not denied the right to a specific
counsel of her choice; she never named or said she had a specific
counsel as was true in Gonzalez-Lopez. See id. at 142-43.
Accepting that Gonzalez-Lopez establishes a standard of structural
error on the facts of that case, those facts are simply not present
here. Moreover, our supreme court in Brown was well aware of
Gonzalez-Lopez when it stated that a showing of material prejudice
to the defendant was required to find an abuse of discretion in
denying a motion to continue, for the Gonzalez-Lopez opinion is
cited in the next paragraph of Brown. Brown, ¶¶ 19-20. And,
Brown states that “[b]ecause we do not decide whether there was an
impermissible violation of Brown’s Sixth Amendment right to
counsel, we do not address whether such a denial constitutes a
structural error, thus requiring reversal of the convictions.” Id. at
¶ 29 n.6.
¶ 92 Thus, I conclude that a structural error analysis does not
apply to the denial of a continuance in this case, and given the
40
language in Brown regarding a showing of material prejudice, I
believe the constitutional harmless error test may be applied here.
41