To understand the Colorado Criminal Code and more specifically the charge or charges in the Complaint and Information or Grand Jury Indictment against you – you need TWO things.
I. You Will Need To Understand The Actual Statutory Crime With Which You Have Been Charged
– The statute, as of 2016, appears first on this page.
II. You Will Also Need To Understand How The Jury Or Judge Reads The Elements – ( a jury instruction “breakout” of the necessary parts or list of things that make up the crime)
– The Jury Instructions for most of the main forms of the crimes with which individuals are charged – appears after a reprint of the statute defining the crime.
(1) Any person who knowingly seizes and carries any person from one place to another, without his consent and without lawful justification, commits second degree kidnapping.
(2) Any person who takes, entices, or decoys away any child not his own under the age of eighteen years with intent to keep or conceal the child from his parent or guardian or with intent to sell, trade, or barter such child for consideration commits second degree kidnapping.
(3) Second degree kidnapping is a class 2 felony if any of the following circumstances exists
(a) The person kidnapped is a victim of a sexual offense pursuant to part 4 of this article; or
(b) The person kidnapped is a victim of a robbery.
4) (a) Unless it is a class 2 felony under subsection (3) of this section, second degree kidnapping is a class 3 felony if
any of the following circumstances exist:
(I)The kidnapping is accomplished with intent to sell, trade, or barter the victim for consideration; or
(II The kidnapping is accomplished by the use of a deadly weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon; or
(III The kidnapping is accomplished by the perpetrator representing verbally or otherwise that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon.
(b A defendant convicted of second degree kidnapping committed under any of the circumstances set forth in this subsection (4) shall be sentenced by the court in accordance with the provisions of section 18-1.3-406.
(5) Second degree kidnapping is a class 4 felony, except as provided in subsections (3) and (4) of this section.
The elements of the crime of second degree kidnapping (seized and carried) are:
1. That the defendant,
2. in the State of Colorado, at or about the date and place charged,
3. knowingly,
4. seized and carried any person from one place to another,
5. without his [her] consent, and
6. without lawful justification.
[7. and that the defendant’s conduct was not legally authorized by the affirmative defense[s] in Instruction[s] ___.]To Enlarge Felony Sentencing Chart – Click Anywhere On Chart